To create it, Dagg photographs the models and action figures he collected as a Star Wars-crazed kid, combining them with photographs specially crafted to bring the toys to life. "Each shot was taken specifically for a certain toy, and sculpted how I shot the environment," Dagg tells The Creators Project. In one of his photos, a hazy reflection in a window reveals Boba Fett's T-shaped helmet (an item Dagg keeps on his desk at all times). Another image appears to take place in an abandoned alley way, until you see a carbonite-frozen Han Solo resting against a brick wall. TIE Fighters zoom over suburban sprawl; Darth Vader rides the bus; and a dozen other images depict scenarios that would make nine-year-old Dagg (and nine-year-old me) squeal with delight.It was no easy task for Thomas Dagg to actualize visions of his own childhood dreams. "Making something that is six or less inches tall look life-size requires some fancy lens trickery to match the depth of field, distortion, and perspective of the real life scene," Dagg tells The Creators Project. "The subtleness and context lends itself to the believability as well." This is the element that sets Dagg's work apart: his digital interventions blend in with the details of the location, floating in the distance as people go about their daily lives. Despite the giant spaceships and baseball-playing Jedi, we can imagine living inside the world he captures—and that's a beautiful form of storytelling in and of itself.
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Immerse yourself in Dagg's Star Wars world by looking through the images below:
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