Size Doesn't Matter

November 24, 2011 4:15 PM

Frank Kunert is happy his photographs have an “analog” look about them. After all, he did hand-make the models himself. Before the German photographer even snaps a single shot, he is in his studio, creating 3D model subjects — usually industrial grey constructs in still, almost poetic, settings — out of deco boards, plasticine, and paint. It could take weeks, even months, before Frank is fully satisfied. The result? Models that could could pass for the real thing, and photographs that portray complete worlds of their own.
posted by netbros (16 comments total)

They're cute, but they look like models to me. Really well done ones, but models never the less. At least they don't look like CGI.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:32 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thomas Demand?
posted by R. Mutt at 4:45 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think the point is to fool you, Ideefixe. These reminded me of a more fantastic version of Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle.
posted by dhartung at 4:58 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think the emphasis is really on the photography of the models, but the models themselves, and I would therefore call him more of a modeler than a photographer.
posted by Poagao at 5:04 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was a little "eh" until I hit this one.

The diners are set up to watch their own TV, yes, but the real brilliance is the corner in the center of the diorama - a person sitting at that table wouldn't see the other diner at all.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 5:05 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

These are indeed brilliant. I like this one a lot for the disparity between the two worlds and the implications of class divide, in spite of the physical closeness.
posted by odinsdream at 5:15 PM on November 24, 2011

These are sort of cute and whimsical, but Thomas Demand's stuff sets the bar pretty bloody high for photographs of models of places.
posted by jack_mo at 5:31 PM on November 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

James Casebere is where it's at.
posted by oulipian at 5:42 PM on November 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

The L-shaped dinner table is brilliant.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:03 PM on November 24, 2011

I've seen this one before among pictures of "Architecture fail" so at least some people are taken in.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:47 PM on November 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've seen that too Mr. Encyclopedia and I had no idea it was a model! Though figured there *some* logical explanation). This is cool stuff though. I remember seeing a picture of his work maybe 10 years ago in Harper's, of just a perfectly banal modern building.
posted by Flashman at 6:54 PM on November 24, 2011

Previously on MeFi: Carl Zimmerman. (Only one of the links to photos of Zimmerman's stuff still works.)
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:01 PM on November 24, 2011

That site really brutalized those images by applying way to much JPG compression.
posted by delmoi at 11:27 PM on November 24, 2011

I like them. Most of them are available to buy, but I'd like something else than postcard or serving tray (!) as the medium...
posted by Harald74 at 12:24 AM on November 25, 2011

Yeah, the 3D model of the setup would be perfect...
posted by hat_eater at 3:28 AM on November 25, 2011

Like Mr. Encyclopedia mentions, I've seen some of these before (in particular this one) in "weird architecture" compilations on the web. I had always wondered where that funny half-pipe house was -- now I know. It's interesting how knowing in advance that these are models makes them look like models, but without that context, I think most of us would see them as bizarre architecture instead of models. Certainly that's been my response when I've seen some of these decontextualized in other places. Really impressive work.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 7:24 AM on November 25, 2011