Plastic Fantastic

At age 33, Mike Stimpson may seem a little old to still be messing around with Lego, but the British computer programmer has developed quite a following from his playtime efforts.

Using some elaborate lighting -- and quite a bit of patience -- Stimpson recreates classic photographs in Lego. Among his works: the lone man confronting tanks in Tiananmen Square (picture below) and the sailor kissing his girlfriend in Times Square on V-J Day (a day that commemorates the US victory over Japan in WWII). He posts his efforts on his Web site, which has developed a worldwide following.

"When I got my first decent camera my initial reaction was to take photos of anything lying around the house that I could get my hands on," Stimpson told Holga Blog, a film photography blog. "It probably says a lot about the sort of things that I have lying around my house that most of my shots were of Lego and toys."

He quickly realized that Lego was no good for close-ups – "They’re always grinning," he told the UK’s The Mirror. So he turned to recreating classics, which has since become a labor of love. He told Holga Blog of two shots that took several hours to shoot: "The recreation of Henri Cartier-Bresson's 'Behind the Gare Saint Lazare' and the recreation of 'Hand of God' [a 1986 soccer game shot] were both technically difficult to set up. Both involved Lego figures suspended from thread, and 'Behind the Gare Saint Lazare' was made inside a tray full of water, which meant things started floating away as I was taking shots!"

The hardest part of his Lego labors: The planning. "Once I have an idea, working out a way to represent it in Lego can take a while," he told Holga Blog. "There are some photos that I’ve had in mind for over a year, but still haven’t figured out how to do them justice in Lego."

Ah, but If you build it they will come – to the Web site, anyway!

Photos courtesy of Mike Stimpson.