Little Canada is a unique visitor attraction in the heart of Toronto that tells the stories of Canada and showcases the country’s cities & landscapes through the art of miniature.
While miniature, it’s not small. It spans 45,000 sq. ft – that’s two hockey rinks! It’s a place where the CN Tower stands 12 ft tall, the Bay of Fundy simulates the highest tides in the world with its 400L basin, and over 40,000 little figures call it home.
Street art dioramas could be right under your foot and you might not notice. They are tiny, miniature people posed in the great, big, real world. Some are tiny people, some are model trains and some are buildings. All are varied ideas on the same theme of taking miniature art into the street, the outdoors, and posing to interact with the great big world out there.
I'm not a professional photographer. I like creative photography. There are so many things we can create but it's the photograph that keeps them around, remembered and shows them just like new long after the original is gone. Like making a sandcastle on the beach and taking a photo before people walking on the shore and the waves come in to sweep it away. A photograph preserves art and showcases art too.
I photograph old, abandoned and derelict buildings to keep something of them in the world, remembered. However, I love to see other art in photos. I've been watching for different ways to be creative with a camera. There are endless ways and means and styles.
One form of art which is captured by the camera are miniature dioramas created in the street, in public places. Some are in places people walk around all the time, but they might not notice them. Some are outdoors where people might only see them in a photograph.
I wasn't especially interested in art with miniatures. I saw model railways with whole towns and the little people in them. I admired the work, the imagination and creativity. But, I wasn't inspired to try it myself. For one thing, I knew I wouldn't have the patience to assemble an entire miniature village.
Then I found The Little People Project. I loved it. I went out and bought the smallest dolls I could find at the thrift store (2 Bratz Barbie-sized dolls) and started to try the idea of posing little people myself. I did it for awhile but I didn't have the right dolls, the right little people, so I put that project on the back burner. I still have the dolls and the photos I took.
As a kid I liked tales of the little people living in their own tiny world inside the every day world of regular people. I would enjoy fantasy art with mice who slept in beds that were repurposed boxes of matches. They would sit on spools of thread around a table make of an old block of cheese. Not just mice.
My favourites were actual tiny sized people, not fairy creatures but real people who had some how become shrunken. Do you remember the story of Thumbelina? I liked that far more than Tom Thumb, who was a boy after all.
About a dozen years ago it seems, I first noticed the photographs of tiny people posed in the real world. The first was linked in a blog (I have long forgotten which one). Later I found several in an art blog post, with a link to a site where they had originally found the photographs. This time there was an article about the photographer, Slinkachu, who created the idea to pose miniature figures (he reformed and painted them all himself) into a new form of street art. Like a public diorama, which he left standing when he was finished photographing it.
What I really wanted to know was… how was it done?
It turns out the tiny people are miniatures created for model rail road sets, dioramas as they may be called. I looked for tiny people. I was hoping to get lucky at the secondhand store. None that small in the toy bin but I did pick up two Bratz dolls, smaller sizes. I made them my tiny people in the big world. I posed them outside and indoors too. I tried to be creative but the more I worked at it the more I understood how much planning actually goes into those photos.
Of course, you need to use the macro feature on your camera. Get in close and then make sure you have the little people in focus. That wasn’t so easy either. I learned to take several extra photos because there would be at least half (or more) which would not be in crystal clear, sharp focus. It was disappointing when the very one which I had caught at just the right angle was the least in focus. But, I could usually try again, and I did!
I didn’t plan any farther ahead than the time it took me to get out the camera and the dolls as soon as I had the hint of an idea. But, it was fun, as a new hobby. I posted my photos to Flickr, some people thought I was sort of clever.
After being inspired by photos taken of little dolls in peril or just trying to cope in the big world, I have found my own little people to experiment with. I’ve seen people use Barbie dolls, some kind of revenge against the media thing I think. I know an artist who uses tiny figurines which are sold to be set up in model train villages.
I have been using two Bratz dolls which I bought at a GoodWill store. I like their sort of bitchy expression and the fact that they aren't blonde princess types. These Bratz dolls have a range for true torment, real peril and facing it all with an annoyed look.
So far the hardest part is getting the photograph in good focus. Even when I’m sure I’ve got several good photos, I end up deleting all but one or two cause they are blurry looking. I’m going to see what tricks and ideas I can find from other sites and people who are taking close up photos of little things. It's almost macro photography, but not quite that close up and focused on one small thing.
My best tips for anyone giving this a try:
Orchid Dolls - Ten Tips For Doll Photography
- Align the eyes, forward, upward or sideways: spend the time you need for that.
- Focus the eyes. Make the doll look directly at your lens, or at some distant point from the camera.
- Another important thing are the eyebrows: even if the wig has a fringe, I always try to show the eyebrows because this is what enhances the expression in the doll’s look.
- I don’t use high angles with my dolls, because it makes them look like simple dolls. To make them look alive, I put myself to their eye level or even, sometimes, below it.
- Try to avoid elements out of our doll’s scale in our framing, such as benches, litter bins, people walking… unless, of course, your intention is to show just that.
A Source of Inspiration
