Brian McCarty - toy photographer.

Brian McCarty is a Memphis-born toy photographer and director/producer. Working with toys for over 15 years, McCarty’s unique and innovative vision has attracted a huge international following. His postmodern integration of concept and character has earned McCarty’s photography a prominent position in the growing Urban Vinyl / Art-Toy movement, popularized by fellow artists such as Takashi Murakami and Brian "KAWS" Donnelly. McCarty is featured in several books chronicling the artistic movement such as Vinyl Will Kill, Dot Dot Dash, and Toys: New Designs from the Art-Toy Revolution.

In Brian McCarty's toy photographs, he aims to give each toy a personality, create an image around that toys story and make the story obvious within how his composes his image. As part of my research I think it would help alot in the process of my own project to analyse some of his images and try to understand how he created each story, in able for me to create my own beleivable child abuse story using a toy.



In this image it's clear the photographer used the weather to create a story around the toy. There is life created for the toy with how the scarf is moving in the wind, giving a sense of movement in the photograph creating a life for the toy. The dark grey colours in the sky relates to the grey tones of shadow on the toy, giving the toy a personality which links with the weather. The angle of the camera creates a sense that the toy is more superior than the viewer by using visual hierarchy, also making the toy look taller than the mountains creating a powerful image, however the grass around the toy shows reality and that the toy is actually very small.



This photograph is slightly different to the first one as there are also humans in this photograph. Again, the low angle of the photograph creates the impression the toy is the same height as the humans, creating a more realistic feel. The positioning of the toy and the expression on her face creates sympathy towards her from the viewer. The dark clothing of the humans aroung her and the bright white sky creates and overall sadness about the image, mirroring the emotions of the toy.