THE ARTWORK

I first began to work with toys as the subject matter for my artwork in 1972 while I was a graduate student in photography at Yale. Initially I was interested in the toys merely as objects. As I continued working I began to try to re-create the feelings of childhood play by photographing toy soldiers on the floor of my bedroom and using simple painted wood blocks to represent buildings and cities. I quickly found that narrow focus that came from photographing object less than an inch tall gave the toys more life and a sense of realism that was not inherent in them. I found too, as I slowly began to add more and more elements from train stores and model shops, that the limited depth of field, when carefully applied, would create not only more realism but also a sense of movement in these inanimate objects. At this point I first began to sense how powerful these photographs could become.

I made the photographing of these small-scale toy soldiers the subject of my graduate thesis project, and later collaborated with Garry Trudeau in creating the book, Hitler Moves East, which was first published in 1977. Since then, I have worked at developing and refining a personal photographic style and vision. Utilizing toy figures and structures as subject matter for the creation of a surrogate reality, I have endeavored to create a 'fictional world' that simultaneously calls into question our sense of truth and credibility. Much of my work over the years has dealt with myths: the myths of the American West, the idealized 'perfection' of the female icons of the fifties, and the realm of sexual fantasy.

All of this work has been undertaken using toys as the subject matter for my photographs. Setting up the toy figures is just the beginning. The set itself is just the background. It is a scene. And it is within and from that scene that the images themselves are found. No matter how often one poses figures in the studio, there is always a difference between how the set is envisioned and how it comes to life with the camera.