Amazing landscape photos are actually cleverly-built dioramas

Photographer Matthew Albanese’s portfolio is full of amazing landscape photos, which are meant to trick the viewer’s eyes, as they consist of dioramas.

Photography is an immeasurable source of inspiration and photographers are the fountains, constantly supplying viewing material.

In this world, we can also find Matthew Albanese, a lensmen born in New Jersey back in 1983. Apparently, he has been “an only child” and his boyhood has been dominated by moving from place to place, forcing him to play alone.

This volcano is actually tile grout and a lot of cotton. Lighting comes from phosphorus ink and 60-watt light bulbs. Credits: Matthew Albanese.

Even a spilled can of paprika can be a source of inspiration for photographers

Either way, he has always loved to have fun with regular household items and he has come up with various playing scripts. He has grown to become a fashion photographer, but everything has changed in 2008.

Albanese’s ideas for his first project came from a can on paprika, whose contents had just been spilled on the table. Since it was red, the photographer envisioned that it looked a lot like Mars’ soil. Shortly after that, he has built numerous dioramas using small objects, condiments, and various aliments.

This lightning strike is actually regular lightning in the back of a black-painted plexiglass. Credits: Matthew Albanese.

Matthew Albanese uses dioramas to create stunning landscape photography

Dioramas were mobile theaters during the 19th century. Nowadays mobile theaters are an almost extinct breed, so dioramas have become 3D miniature models of buildings, aircraft, cards, places, and others.

Matthew Albanese is using small-scale scene replicas of places in his photography. Although the actual photo looks like it is a real place, it has been artificially created by the photographer in a studio.

The scenes are very detailed and they can trick anybody’s eyes. One of the best works consists of a lightning shot, which is actually plexiglass painted in black and regular lighting to recreate a huge electrostatic discharge.

Sometimes you have to make some connections between things with no apparent relation between them. This storm has been created using ostrich feathers, chocolate, sticky tape, and coffee. Credits: Matthew Albanese.

Multiple prestigious museums have invited Albanese to exhibit his work

Photographer’s artwork has been acknowledged by the Museum of Art and Design of New York. Albanese has been invited to exhibit his work there in 2011.

Many other museums and galleries have been honored by his presence, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Winkleman Gallery.

Another impressive landscape has been created using ostrich feathers, cotton, chocolate, coffee, thread, baking paper, and sticky tape. This shows the diversity of objects used by Matthew and that sometimes you have to work harder to find your inspiration.

Albanese has even recreated the moon landing. He spent two months gathering ash, but he did not waste the time, as the photo turned out great. Credits: Matthew Albanese.

Impressive lunar landscape could easily fool anyone that it’s the real deal

It is a good thing that digital photography was not around in the 1960s, as Albanese has created his own lunar landscape. Since there are a lot of conspiracy theorists, Matthew’s version of the moon and Earth looks pretty accurate and it would have fueled the ego of many nonbelievers.

He used ash to recreate the moon’s surface and it took him two months to stock enough ash for his project.

More diorama artwork can be found at the photographer’s official website, where you can also buy Matthew’s book.