Photographing Elgin Park

Frozen in the amber of 1950s nostalgia, Elgin Park is a strangely evocative town. Looming over it all is Michael Paul Smith, seen in the photo below.

The picture is neither a photoshop nor has Michael, like the monsters in a 1950s sci-fi movie, been embiggened by a radiation leak. As you can see he is simply looking down on a table that holds one of the dioramas he's built.

Elgin Park is Michael's creation. It is his remembered and perfected view of small town Americana from 50 years ago. He photographs the models against natural backdrops to add to the reality of the scenes. He's also publishing a book of his photographs, Eligin Park: An Ideal American Town which you can pre-order from Amazon. 

There are more pictures after the jump. You can also view many more pictures at his Flikr Photostream. The photostream includes more examples of his dioramas, pictures showing how he puts his dioramas together and old photos he uses as inspiration for his work.

(HT: kuriositas) 

One final picture for The Robotolizer