Shelly Corbett is a 60 years old toy photographer who resides in Seattle. She has already been a photographer for 34 years ! In 1987 she got her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at the University of Washington. She has a husband and children who have a deep love for LEGO. The first experience Shelly Corbett got with photography was when she was nine years old, her father had bought her a Kodak Starflash 120 camera. Later she realized that she could make a profession out of it, and even later she started doing toy photography.
Style Shelly Corbett used to focus her work mainly on the human figure but due to social media where she discovered the toy photography community and due to her husband and her children’s love for LEGO her photography career took a different direction. She likes portraying a childish sense in her photographs, she puts the toy figures mostly in nature, arranges them to create a scene, if needed, and shoots her picture. Shelly Corbett likes taking photos with a very short focal range this blurs the background and ‘’blends the colors in a way that feels very painterly.’’ She likes mixing painting and photography, she uses traditional painting mediums to blur the line between photography and painting even more.
Philosophy She explains how through these small plastic figures she learned to tell stories, she wants them to sound fun and/or relatable. She invites the audience into a peaceful world, with pure childish innocence. ‘’My goal is to share my knowledge of mini figures and photography with a brand new audience while growing and learning from this vibrant community.’’ Her earlier work was very different and she said herself that she either had to sort their LEGO collection for the rest of her life or start embracing the fun of it. Seeing the little LEGO figures in photos makes it look so easy and has an appeasing feeling. Toy photography is really just a beautiful world.
Influences Shelly Corbett's family was her biggest inspiration, her family loves LEGO and has a big collection. Her own love for it really started when she got her first LEGO gift, which was one of the small collectible figurines. She has now loved them for ten years, and the photographs are still amazing. I am myself part of the toy photography community, and was happy to learn about an adult who does the same thing as me and made it her job. Her pictures are truly beautiful, I will definitely blur my backgrounds now. Some of her ideas have really inspired me, the colors and the innocence of her photographs makes me feel like I am three again. And I think that is exactly her goal, to cut us loose and make us embrace our inner three year olds.
People Need Bears (Corbett)
People Need Cats
My image has a couple of differences with the original, first I didn't have a LEGO bear so I used a cat instead (that is how I decided on my title). My figure is a bit different because I didn't have the identical one, the color of the blue bicycle is also a bit different. Lastly the background is different, in mine it is only green and the part that goes in front of the bicycle is brown. In the original image the story is better told because the LEGO figure looks a bit to the right, while mine doesn't look in that direction. It is a cute picture, with a cute girl on a bicycle. She rides it in a green field and wants to share her love for cats/bears.
Baby Makes Three (Corbett)
Happy Family
These images are pretty similar, the only difference are the figures, the background and the ground. The ground is wood in the original, but I had to use stone. All the figures are almost on the exact same position, I am proud how I was able to do that. Even the baby looks off to the distance, the mother looks at the camera and the father looks away. I think that how everyone is looking in a different direction makes the photo so much more interesting, it creates a dynamic and more of a story. I also love how the very bottom part of the image is blurred, it directly makes you pay attention to the family. Their positions create a personality for each of them, even though there are figures I feel like they all have their own personality.
Scavengers (Corbett)
Ray
This time my image isn't that great, but I tried my best. The angle is different, and instead of some sort of rock in from of the figure I used a tree branch. In my image the robot is not in focus and the background is not the sky, it is just the ground. At least I had the same figure and both images are black and white. In the original it actually looks like she is going somewhere, and it looks like a hard road. But I didn't succeed in telling that story with mine. When taking my picture it was really cold outside, and I didn't have much time. Which is why this image doesn't look as great.
Artist Statement
I enjoyed taking the first two pictures and I took my time to get the best image possible. I was a little bit rushed for the third one, but looking back the image is not that bad. Choosing the images took some time because I wanted to select images I could actually do and maybe also had the same figures. I changed my image choice ounce, my third image was going to be different but I realized that it would be too hard for me to take a photo like that. I love how the first picture is colorful, joyful and childish. The second one tells a great family story. The last one pictures exhaustion, traveling and obstacles.