Atlanta - March 13, 2009

Hello, Dolly

Erin Tyner Artwork

Skipper, Ken, Barbie, and Jem. Your dollhouse scandals were practically endless. Until a racy Malibu jacuzzi story line landed your precocious butt in timeout.

Erin Tyner’s Half Awake series, on the other hand, is anything but child’s play.

The West Midtown photog creates evocative, moving scenes out of train set figurines — most of which are less than an inch tall — and shoots them using a macro lens. (Translation: Tyner hawk-eyes minute foreground details, while her camera allows the immediate background to blur out of focus.)

Feast your eyes on the caught-in-the-storm Sometimes scene. Tyner crafted the whirling tornado from a tiny tuft of steel wool. In Wake, a blue, moonlit lagoon is all inky moodiness … brilliantly constructed from indigo dyed Jell-O.

Tyner’s methods are tedious, but the lasting impression is just the opposite.

Small wonders never cease.

Available online at erintyner.com. For custom orders, e-mail erin@erintyner.com.

Little people on the East Coast. Big fashion in the West. L.A. Fashion Week starts today. Check out the Dossier for runway coverage, contests, product Swindles, and more.

Photo: Erin Tyner, Yellow, 2008 (from the series Half Awake)

  Artsy