Little People Project

How often do you stop to consider the world around you

from a different perspective?

It seems that we get set in our ways,

comfortably nearsighted,

amid the routine of daily life.

Stepping into a different light, or a different pair of shoes, can make a world of difference in the workings of our hearts and minds.

I love those moments when I stop and gasp, “Wow! There’s a whole new way to see that!”

Take, for instance, the photographs of an elusive London artist known only as “Slinkachu.”

(Don’t you love the alias?)

Playing with perspective is this man’s passion, and his photos persuade me to ponder …

Photo by Slinkachu, courtesy of The Little People Project

Photo by Slinkachu, courtesy of The Little People Project

Photo by Slinkachu, courtesy of The Little People Project

Slinkachu takes trash and transforms it into landscapes to be traversed by tiny human figures. A tennis-ball island, a banana-peel tent, a gum-wrapper kite, or a shoelace sea serpent …

Photos by Slinkachu, courtesy of Co.EXIST

Each miniature encounter takes place on an intimate scale that is nearly lost to the eye when viewed from a full-sized human perspective. Above it all, we see only a small scrap of rubbish in a vast urban landscape.

How easily we overlook events that are happening right under our noses.

“I hope that the images can tell small stories and resonate with people,” Slinkachu says. “Connect with their own experiences of life in big cities and of being lost and alone at certain times.”

Again, it’s all in how you look at it.

Not everyone reacts to Skinkachu’s images the same way. “For children, who might miss the undertones of an image, there is the magic of a miniature world that might exist unseen around them,” he explains.

Even this grown-up granny can catch a glimpse of that magic, and it makes me wonder what miniature melodramas might be going on beneath the umbrellas of my zucchini plants …

Photo by Forest & Kim Starr via Wikimedia Commons