model town

x2_large_verge_super_wideMichael Paul Smith’s photos span across decades, showing a quaint American town through the bustling ’20s and into the 1960s. But Smith, who calls himself a hobbyist, didn’t begin taking photos until just a few years ago: he collects model cars, trains, buildings, and other knickknacks, and photographs them to create pictures that look like they could have been pulled out of an old scrapbook.
The key to that illusion is shooting the models outside, where Smith carefully selects angles that allow his scale cities to blend seamlessly into the world around them. “It’s a matter of finding a suitable backdrop that will work with the era I am trying to portray,” Smith writes in an email to The Verge. “I wanted to be able to frame everything in the camera.”
Smith has been posting his photos to Flickr since 2008, and in 2010 they turned into something of a web phenomenon, with daily page views nearing 750,000 a day, according to a New York Times report at the time. The following year, many of his photos were published in a book, titled Elgin Park: An Ideal American Town, named after the fictional city that Smith’s photos are set in.
But Smith’s photography has continued, and he has plenty of trinkets to work with. “I am a junk collector and dumpster diver from way back,” Smith tells us. “I have boxes of found objects, pieces of building material, paint and the like just waiting to be used.” Sometimes Smith builds models of his own, other times he modifies existing ones or repurposes common objects, whatever’s necessary to bring some life to the model cars. “I didn’t like the idea of them just sitting on a shelf,” Smith writes. “They needed to be put into a context.”

6_verge_super_wide
Set in the mid 1930s. 'North Main Street - Elgin Park'

3_verge_super_wide
'WLGN Goes Mobile!'

7_verge_super_wide
Set in the 1940s. 'The Delivery of the New Bendix Washing Machine'

setup1_verge_super_wide
The setup for shooting 'The Delivery of the New Bendix Washing Machine''

5_verge_super_wide
'Moving Day - Stopping by the Creek - 1944'

2_verge_super_wide
'Right Here in Elgin Park!'

8_verge_super_wide
'The 1957 Dodge Sweepside In Action'

x1_verge_super_wide
'The 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline Aerosedan'

4_verge_super_wide
'Teen Idol Slips into Town'

8376768090_dd49d5d728_o_verge_super_wide
The artist with his models.

[via The Verge]

Share this post

Book a Consultation
Tell us about yourself
Send Us A Message
Tom Foerstel : Founder & President

Tom Foerstel

Founder & President

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60’s, Tom developed a strong desire to create positive change for people and planet.

He went on to pursue his passion for art and design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and worked for design firms in Southern California before moving to Boise, Idaho in the early 80’s. Foerstel Design opened its doors in 1985. Since its inception, the firm has cultivated a bold, happy, forward-looking team focussed on creating distinct and effective work on behalf of their clients.

An integral part of Tom’s philosophy is giving back to the community in which he lives — a company cornerstone that drives Foerstel’s long history of providing pro-bono services to local non-profit humanitarian and arts programs.

One of Tom’s proudest personal achievements is his ability to say Supercalifragilisticexpyalidocious backwards.