Miniature Wonderlands: The Art of Anca Duse
Anca Dușe is a Romanian photographer with a rather surprising career evolution. With a background in art and history, Anca started working in the travel business in 2007 for leading tourism companies while engaging in travel and architectural photography for hotels and resorts. 2020 marked an important change in her approach to photography – as she could not travel she was obliged to find subjects inside her home.
Image courtesy of the artist
Words by Anca Dușe
I grew up in Bucharest, spending half of my childhood before the 1989 Revolution and half right after. I am lucky to have memories from both periods. Growing up, I remember drawing and having this ability to reproduce hyper realistic drawings on paper. It was less about imagination and creativity, and rather the ability to look at reality and very accurately sketch it down on a piece of paper.
My family encouraged and supported my so-called ‘talent’ and invested time and money sending me to art courses. This was a considerable financial effort for my parents at that time – and I wasn’t going to fail or let them down. Since I loved art in general – drawing and painting in particular – I followed this path through high school and university, growing up in an elitist environment formed by ideas and ideals.
Then I had to start dealing and working in real life. As a young art graduate, the opportunities to support myself as an artist were not an option at that time, and I politely declined a job in a museum. Instead, I looked for better paying jobs: first in advertising, and then in the travel industry. Not much to do with art, right?
Still, it turned out to be the best choice I ever made, and in 2014 something major and totally unexpected happened. At that time, I had been working for quite a few years at the leading Romanian tourism company and I had this crazy idea I wanted to pitch for a project: the idea was to embark on a world tour, documenting travel destinations across the globe, in order to inspire Romanians to consider travelling to destinations beyond the Mediterranean ones.
For this one year of travelling around the world, I needed to acquire new skills. Among them was photography. During the first 6 months of this amazing trip, I was taking hundreds of photographs a day, documenting every little thing I saw and every moment I lived. I was determined to take better and better travel pictures; this was my main goal during the trip. What I discovered was a way of life: always looking at the world and framing it, always chasing the light and looking for those special moments worth capturing on camera.
Upon returning home (and to work) after a year of total freedom and living my biggest dream yet, I hung onto photography like a wire that still connected me to life on the road.
I didn’t want to let it go! I wanted to keep living freely and continue travelling. Photography gave me a reason to follow this path and to keep chasing my passion for this idea of a life well lived.
I was still an employee when I opened my company and started taking photos for small hotels. I took this new mission very seriously, and I can now say that architectural and travel photography are still my two of my favorite disciplines.
Everything changed in 2020 when two major things happened: I decided to leave the safety and comfort of being an employee in a big company and become a full time photographer.…And then the pandemic hit. The lockdown in March was a major turning point for me! Having suddenly experienced a dramatic change in my old traveler's life, with nowhere to go and nothing to do since we were all locked inside, I started recreating the great outdoors on my small living room table.
Fruits, flowers, and common household objects became the background elements. I actually wanted to stop there, creating conceptual still life as a response to the lack of mobility and to fight the wave of bad news related to the pandemic situation. But somehow, I took a step forward and added a character in the frame. Small, humble, interacting with the beautiful surroundings. An Alice in Wonderland feeling, just to remind us of all the beauty that is still out there in the real world.
To my great surprise, people found my creative photos mesmerizing, and – to my even greater astonishment – friends and old colleagues from work supported my art by ordering and buying prints, even in the face of a difficult and uncertain time. I’m still very touched and deeply grateful for their support! Slowly, small business owners and even large brands began to commission me for custom work. I started to gain a little confidence and kept going, kept creating. This month I celebrate one year of freelancing, and I still can’t believe the life I have created for myself !
On one hand, I know I have a lot to learn and grow as a business but at the same time, I am also proud I found the courage to take this step, becoming independent and self sufficient.
The most asked question I receive is not about the risky step I took, to step outside my ‘comfort-employee-zone’, but about the process behind creating a miniature world. I must say it is a slow one. It is slow because it takes time to elaborate the concept behind an idea.
I find inspiration anywhere from the fruits and flowers I find at the market, to events, movies, books, or creative people around the world.
Different parts of Dușe’s images, prior to assembly
Once I have an idea, it does take a little time to seek out and source the missing ‘ingredients’ to my photograph.
After acquiring all the props, I start arranging them in a balanced way that tells a story. This becomes the universe. Last but not least, I take photos of the character, in a way that can naturally interact with its surroundings. Needless to say it is a trial and error process that can take a lot of time. Not to forget the last part: the post-production process in Photoshop which allows me to merge the background (the still life) with the character.
Overall, I would say the total process of creating a miniature takes about 3-4 days after having all the props in my possession if working on it is the only thing I do all day long.
Each miniature photo project is unique, and I dare say that none of this would have taken form if the context was different. 2020 was a tough year for humankind at a global scale, no doubt about it. In the same time, I saw some amazing responses from artists around the world in their effort to balance the ugliness of times we faced throughout their work and creativity.
I couldn't help but wonder if it was not somehow a similar reaction to that of the artists during the terrible plague epidemic in 1348 which Boccaccio describes in his Decameron.
COVID19 impacted us all very differently. In my case, aside from the obvious negative impacts, it brought along motivation and a mission I did not have before: to create and inspire other people; to bring a little colour and beauty into their lives.
To find out more about Anca Dușe and her work, visit her Instagram.