Laura Miner: Tiny Ghosts

My latest developing project involves staging ghost photography on a small scale. The goal is not necessarily to debunk images  of supposedly real ghosts. I want to challenge myself with the task of creating illusions with my digital camera without the aid of layering in Photoshop. In line with other projects of mine, I want to create images that are unsettling, yet soft in their delivery. Also in line with other projects, I will continue to work on a small scale.

©Laura Miner 2013

As a child, I loved playing in my doll house (featured in the photographs in this post). I would also make my own doll apartments on shelves and dresser tops all over my grandparents' house. My grandparents were much more patient with this behavior than my parents were. Shrinking down and living in the homes I made was a fantasy of mine.

 After I grew older and stopped playing in that way, photography facilitated that fantasy. I was drawn to photographing miniatures and dolls because in a photograph you edit the world around you. I could make the size of my small creations ambiguous; an easier feat making them my size rather than shrinking myself. 

©Laura Miner 2013

©Laura Miner 2013

I want to believe in ghosts, but I'm not completely willing to go all in without more proof. As a fan of ghost stories and as a photographer, I am attracted to supposed images of ghosts. What are the possibilities of recording beyond our line of sight?

With this series, I want the audience to ask themselves how it could be possible. I want them to be excited by the notion of apparitions and other worldly spirits, while also questioning the scale and reality of the room. 

These initial shots from my childhood dollhouse are exploring the terrain. These images give the impression of which angles I'm attracted to, the lighting scheme and the mood. I plan to go in again with more tricks up my sleeve to create the apparitions.

Laura Miner: Fear and Indifference

The new direction in my current project, (in which I am actually going back to older interests) takes the blood and terror I intended from my previous images, and gives it a context with miniature sets.

Laura Miner ©2011

Thinking of the philosophical query, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" one might reason that there must be other living things besides humans, and of course, those things would hear it fall.  I ask in my current series, "If something bad happens to you in the woods, do the other living things care?"
After trying to come up with subtly gruesome scenes, I came to the realization that a huge stimulus for fear is the idea that if you were in trouble no one would be able to help you. I admit, it's one facet to my own issues with bodily integrity.  There is nothing scarier than knowing that the only living things around you are indifferent to your situation, and may even munch on you. Thus is the inspiration for this series which depicts random pools of blood being curiously investigated and casually co-existing with animals.

Laura Miner ©2011

 Blood, being a tried and true catalyst of fear, and animals, being symbols of peace but also savagery, the images evoke an eerie feeling of dread, but could also contain a twisted and blunt expression of acceptance and returning to the Earth.

Laura Miner ©2011