Carrie M. Becker: Of Small Rooms

Combining her talents as a photographer and sculptor, Becker concentrates on creating 1:6 scale hand-crafted dioramas of domestic interiors which are then photographed to appear life-size. Becker’s large scale photographs resemble old home interiors. “But I am not an urban explorer of abandoned buildings,” she says. Instead, she creates the walls, floors, ceilings and props for cardboard dioramas that fit on a tabletop in her studio. She then scales, lights and checks on the camera angles, shoots and creates an illusion of buildings in “beautiful decay.”

The photographs, which might show cracked plaster and rain soaked surfaces, are actually wooded coffee stirrers, scrapbooking paper and quilted paper towels. Becker uses masking tape for window shades,  and coffee to make any surface look worn. “This predilection for creating tiny details may seem like an odd or maddening hobby to some,” says Becker. “But the end goal is to create a universe that I alone have jurisdiction over.”

Becker’s previous body of work, “Barbie Trashes Her Dream House,” went viral on the blogosphere in 2012 and was subsequently reviewed 52 times in 18 languages. Her work appeared in Huffington Post, Newsweek, and Time.com. Several works from this series are featured in Of Small Rooms