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Elgin Park: An Ideal American Town
The imagined city of Elgin Park, a magically realistic evocation of a midcentury American town, has captured the hearts of millions of web visitors and now appears in book form. You won't find the town of Elgin Park on a map, but you will find it all over the web and in the media. Called an Internet phenomenon by the New York Times, Michael Paul Smith's Flickr site has received over 20 million hits since he first posted his convincing yet dreamlike photographs of an imaginary town, inspired by the small Pennsylvania one he grew up in. Viewers of all ages from across the world will respond to the memories and feelings evoked by his perfectly executed miniature street scenes with model vintage cars, which are photographed outdoors against actual backgrounds. Without digital manipulation, Smith creates wondrously realistic scenes, which are beautifully reproduced in this exquisite volume. Gail Ellison, a longtime colleague of the artist, explains Smith's ingenious methods and also uncovers the themes of his art.
- GenresPhotography
144 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 15, 2018
This is an extraordinary body of work, and a fascinating book.
Elgin Park is the exploration of memory and fantasy by Michael Paul Smith, using metal cars from the middle of last century, combined with his model making skills and real backdrops to create scenes of everyday life. All of this is done without Photoshop.
Smith uses a perspectival slight of hand to situate imagined scenes into real backdrops. He places each scene with a road, cars and buildings on a table, using the real backdrops to incorporate a background, weather and the broader environment into each scene. The cars are 1/24th scale so everything incorporated into the foreground must work with the same scale. It’s a cunning slight of hand that gives a sense of reality to what is a complete construction.
What is so remarkable is that even after seeing how Smith has set up a shot, there is a sense of reality in the work that encourages a more detailed viewing. It is as if Smith has captured the shot in the middle of some everyday scene playing out; someone has just ducked into a shop, or is in the front room practicing on the piano, or popped inside for a cuppa, leaving the ute in the driveway mid tire change.
It is this sense of story that is so captivating. It isn’t actually the technique, although that is fascinating technically, but the stories that create the idealized town from mid last century. It is part idealized memory combined with the fantasy of what a community could be, that reveals how far America has traveled from this ideal as a country.
The book has been really well produced. It has lush photographs, and explanations from Smith that are often accompanied by comments from his online followers. Many followers offer great insight into how the work affects them. It gives the book an extra dimension to what Smith does as an artist. So often an artist will create work in isolation, with little or no engagement or feedback prior to an exhibition. In this case, modern opportunities presented by social media allow a community to spring up around the work and the artist, offering a more complex and sophisticated examination of American culture.
I highly recommend this book, for artists, photographers, model makers and sociologists. I found it fascinating.
Reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
Elgin Park is the exploration of memory and fantasy by Michael Paul Smith, using metal cars from the middle of last century, combined with his model making skills and real backdrops to create scenes of everyday life. All of this is done without Photoshop.
Smith uses a perspectival slight of hand to situate imagined scenes into real backdrops. He places each scene with a road, cars and buildings on a table, using the real backdrops to incorporate a background, weather and the broader environment into each scene. The cars are 1/24th scale so everything incorporated into the foreground must work with the same scale. It’s a cunning slight of hand that gives a sense of reality to what is a complete construction.
What is so remarkable is that even after seeing how Smith has set up a shot, there is a sense of reality in the work that encourages a more detailed viewing. It is as if Smith has captured the shot in the middle of some everyday scene playing out; someone has just ducked into a shop, or is in the front room practicing on the piano, or popped inside for a cuppa, leaving the ute in the driveway mid tire change.
It is this sense of story that is so captivating. It isn’t actually the technique, although that is fascinating technically, but the stories that create the idealized town from mid last century. It is part idealized memory combined with the fantasy of what a community could be, that reveals how far America has traveled from this ideal as a country.
The book has been really well produced. It has lush photographs, and explanations from Smith that are often accompanied by comments from his online followers. Many followers offer great insight into how the work affects them. It gives the book an extra dimension to what Smith does as an artist. So often an artist will create work in isolation, with little or no engagement or feedback prior to an exhibition. In this case, modern opportunities presented by social media allow a community to spring up around the work and the artist, offering a more complex and sophisticated examination of American culture.
I highly recommend this book, for artists, photographers, model makers and sociologists. I found it fascinating.
Reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
July 17, 2017
Michael Paul Smith gained an online following through his photographs of mid century America made entirely by miniature models he has hand made.
This book is stunning. The detail in his work is mind blowing and shows his dedication to his art. The behind the scene photos and snippets were wonderful glimpses into what started Smith's work and the time that goes into these wonderful photos.
A great read for those with a love for the 40s/50s Americana aesthetic.
×Copy given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is stunning. The detail in his work is mind blowing and shows his dedication to his art. The behind the scene photos and snippets were wonderful glimpses into what started Smith's work and the time that goes into these wonderful photos.
A great read for those with a love for the 40s/50s Americana aesthetic.
×Copy given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 2, 2017
A fascinating combination of art and nonfiction story. The images and the way the author creates them are part of the charm of this book. I would recommend this as a book for those interested in art, photography, and any reader interested in a unique arts-based reading experience.
September 30, 2017
Michael Paul Smith's photos are amazing. So much talent.
October 6, 2013
I've been a fan of Smith's photos on Flickr for years. They are simply brilliant, combining an obsessive eye for detail with clever framing. He's managed to create a record of an imaginary town that feels real, despite it being comprised entirely of miniatures and models. As it evokes the past so elegantly and effortlessly, viewing these photos in a book is preferable over looking at them on a computer because it enhances the time traveling.
My only complaints are that some of the photos cross pages, so you lose part of them in the valley of the book's spine. I don't know why photo books do this, as it ruins the presentation. I'd also love to have more information on the cars in the pictures. Despite being models, they are of real cars, but I only recognize some of them. It would have been fun to see something like, "Mr. Murphy's 1956 De Soto in front of the diner owned by his family."
These are rather minor complaints overall, though. Marvelous pictures, and there's a lot of "I wish I'd thought of that!" going on.
Edit: As with the coincidence of reading the James Gurney book Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist and finding him featured in Spectrum, Michael Paul Smith is featured in the Flickr Blog, complete with video: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/10/04/...
To give you some idea of what this book is about, here's a typical moment captured in Elgin Park:
...and here's the behind-the-scenes shot that displays Smith's casual brilliance.
Photo and set-up:
My only complaints are that some of the photos cross pages, so you lose part of them in the valley of the book's spine. I don't know why photo books do this, as it ruins the presentation. I'd also love to have more information on the cars in the pictures. Despite being models, they are of real cars, but I only recognize some of them. It would have been fun to see something like, "Mr. Murphy's 1956 De Soto in front of the diner owned by his family."
These are rather minor complaints overall, though. Marvelous pictures, and there's a lot of "I wish I'd thought of that!" going on.
Edit: As with the coincidence of reading the James Gurney book Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist and finding him featured in Spectrum, Michael Paul Smith is featured in the Flickr Blog, complete with video: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/10/04/...
To give you some idea of what this book is about, here's a typical moment captured in Elgin Park:
...and here's the behind-the-scenes shot that displays Smith's casual brilliance.
Photo and set-up:
September 8, 2015
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.
Elgin Park is a magical place, a place that’s preserved in time somewhere between the 1940s and 1960s in 1/24th scale. It’s a place that I’d love to visit, but that I can’t because it doesn’t exist. It’s a place that thousands of people across the world still call home, thanks to one man – Michael Paul Smith.
Smith is the creator of Elgin Park, which is essentially a fictional representation of mid-century America which is told through models at 1/24th scale. Despite the fact that none of the town’s residents are shown in the photographs that Smith takes, which he then uploads to his popular Flickr site, Elgin Park always feels lived in, and indeed half-open doors and the remnants of rainfall help to give you the sense that there’s someone there, just out of shot.
But what’s really fascinating about Smith’s work is the way in which he uses perspective to blend his models with real-life – this book contains many of his set-up shots and his behind the scenes explanations, and so you get a feel for how much effort one model and one shot must really take.
Smith is by no means a professional modeller, but he makes his models to a professional standard; likewise, he’s no pro photographer, preferring instead to use a point and shoot device on its default settings. But it does the job, and in the same way that Bob Dylan’s shaky voice adds authenticity to his lyrics, Smith’s photography seems to make even the models themselves look more authentic.
Overall, I’m a convert – I’d never heard of Elgin Park before I was asked to review the book, but I’m glad that I’ve discovered it. In the end, it just leaves an overall feeling of fuzziness, like when you smell something nice that you haven’t smelled for years and it starts to trigger memories. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in creative, cool stuff. So visit Elgin Park!
Elgin Park is a magical place, a place that’s preserved in time somewhere between the 1940s and 1960s in 1/24th scale. It’s a place that I’d love to visit, but that I can’t because it doesn’t exist. It’s a place that thousands of people across the world still call home, thanks to one man – Michael Paul Smith.
Smith is the creator of Elgin Park, which is essentially a fictional representation of mid-century America which is told through models at 1/24th scale. Despite the fact that none of the town’s residents are shown in the photographs that Smith takes, which he then uploads to his popular Flickr site, Elgin Park always feels lived in, and indeed half-open doors and the remnants of rainfall help to give you the sense that there’s someone there, just out of shot.
But what’s really fascinating about Smith’s work is the way in which he uses perspective to blend his models with real-life – this book contains many of his set-up shots and his behind the scenes explanations, and so you get a feel for how much effort one model and one shot must really take.
Smith is by no means a professional modeller, but he makes his models to a professional standard; likewise, he’s no pro photographer, preferring instead to use a point and shoot device on its default settings. But it does the job, and in the same way that Bob Dylan’s shaky voice adds authenticity to his lyrics, Smith’s photography seems to make even the models themselves look more authentic.
Overall, I’m a convert – I’d never heard of Elgin Park before I was asked to review the book, but I’m glad that I’ve discovered it. In the end, it just leaves an overall feeling of fuzziness, like when you smell something nice that you haven’t smelled for years and it starts to trigger memories. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in creative, cool stuff. So visit Elgin Park!
June 9, 2015
Michael's books is a labour of love and quite clever. It's taken me time to go through it because there is so much to absorb in every photograph. The details that went into every project is mind boggling. I look forward to seeing more of Michael's work.
December 13, 2011
This miniature town is pretty fascinating! Check it out!
November 26, 2013
A masterful combination -- a talented artist's work and publication design.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews