Feel like getting lost in the wondrous spectacle of Mother Nature?
At any given moment, we can all choose to liberate ourselves from our daily responsibilities (not to mention the seductive glow of our computer screens) and take flight into the country.
It is there that we can soak up the sights, sounds and scents of the natural world around us and at least for a small moment in time, happily melt into the scenery.
Sometimes, there's absolute no cure for the modern age blues other than reconnecting with wild, untamed nature as it was meant to be...but what if you're smack dab in the middle of a concrete jungle with no easy escape route in sight?!?!?
Ahhh, yes...that could present a bit of a conundrum if it weren't for Matthew Albanese's self-described "small scale, meticulously detailed models" that depict in miniaturized form what we could conceivably see over the river and through the woods if we could just manage to budget it into our chronically jam-packed schedules. ***Just to be clear, every picture featured in this blog post (except for the very first image at the top) is part of his vast collection of micro-scapes.***
The 26 year old New Jersey photographer and sometime visual merchandiser was unwittingly launched into his unconventional career thanks to the fact that he serendipitously spilled a container of paprika and found that in the midst of cleaning up the mess, an imaginary Mars-scape began taking form in his mind.
That prompted him to purchase 12 pounds of the piquant spice and "Paprika Mars" - his first official miniature scene - was born.
From there, he moved on to equally unconventional materials such as dry ice, cinnamon, faux fur, glass, sanded tile grout, light bulbs and steel wool in order to construct such varying scenes as snow topped mountains with bottle-brush trees dotting the background (above) as well as icy glaciers composed out of 20 pounds of sugar crystals that took one month to grow (below).
His impossibly realistic odes to Mother Nature are both breathtakingly beautiful and stupefying in that you can't help but question what kind of mad genius could possibly have the type of concentration skills and dedication necessary to build scores of these scenes before finally photographing them.
Albanese acknowledged to Britain's The Sun that his models ultimately "come alive only when the camera is set at the precise point of viewing, giving it an artificially created sense of depth." Coulda fooled me.
Clearly, there must be some inexplicable otherworldly alchemy at play, whether with his Salt Water Falls, made out of glass, plexiglass, tile grout, moss, twigs, time-exposed pouring salt, painted canvas & dry ice or his volcanic Breaking Point, in which several 60 watt lightbulbs illuminate a flowing "river" of lava-like tile grout, cotton and phosphorous ink.
Wouldn't you agree that the result of all his handiwork is absolutely magnificent?!? I think that Mother Nature herself would surely approve.
***All Photos Above Courtesy Of Matthew Albanese's Personal Portfolio***
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