#HTE

Tatsuya Tanaka’s Fantastic Miniature Photography

It’s been a while since I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of a single person’s portfolio, but this here is the guy. To say Art Director Tatsuya Tanaka’s imagination is fertile is an understatement, and his attention to detail borders on fanatical. 

Whereas the designers among us might touch an object and become fixated on a parting line, a unique joinery method or a particularly artful weld, Tanaka sees entire worlds in the tiniest of details, and sets up miniatures to help us see what he sees. Tennis ball seams are biking trails; 

a protractor, a blackjack table; 

an F1 pit stop where the “F” stands for “Footwear;" 

a stack of magazines become nighttime snack stands in Hong Kong.

My favorites are the ones that specifically reference life in Tanaka’s home country of Japan. A dishwashing sponge becomes the natural carpet of a hanami (cherry blossom bloomtime picnic);

a tameshigiri practioner produces penne;

a circuit board becomes a partially harvested rice paddy;

Muji notebooks become a cityscape;

Pocky become lighsabers;

a dumpling skin becomes a Sumo ring;

high heels become the entrance to a Tokyo train station.

Which is not to say the non-Japanese-specific ones are not also fascinating.

Most amazing of all is how prolific Tanaka is. Since April of 2011 he has released one new photo a day, every day, in a calendar format. Be careful if you’re at work–you can spend hours clicking through his set-ups.