Miniature cardboard models that are photographed to look like the real thing

Finland digital artist and photographer, Juhamatti Vahdersalo, becomes very frustrated when he can't find the right subject to capture and indulge his creativity. It was this frustration that started an ongoing project where he takes the simple material of cardboard and remodels it to create incredible miniature scenes.

All images courtesy of the artist. Via Creative Boom submission.

All images courtesy of the artist. Via Creative Boom submission.

A lone aeroplane, crashed in a desert, or a spooky house stood on a mountaintop – he crafts these based on his own fictional stories: "I thought of all of the everyday items that could be used for creating figures and found the boxes we used when we moved house," says Juhamatti. "They also had nice package symbols on them which gave me a couple of ideas for stories that could be created around them and also ended up using them concretely on two of my pictures."

To really complete each model, however, Juhamatti used lots of different materials to create the different landscapes – sand, real water, potato flours, and a big smoke machine.

"I used multilayer/lightning technique when photographing these figures," Juhamatti continues. "It gave me much more control in post-production and I could correct the mood of the light if the background required it.

"When I had all the necessary photos taken I combined them in photoshop and added background that I had photographed myself or from stock and modified them to fit into the story. The items I created aren´t perfect and that is also one of the things I love about them. They are made very fast and simple although they have some details on them so can be photographed pretty close. They are rough and have a very childish vibe and I think that is the reason they seem very sympathetic."

Juhamatti is a man of many talents. He even engraves tombstones. Anything creative that "brings bread to the family's table". Discover more at vahdersalo.com.

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