You are now inside the Mirror Dimension
Ever present but undetected
The real world isn’t affected by what happens here
We use the Mirror Dimension to train, surveil…
…and sometimes to contain threats
You don’t want to be stuck in here without your sling ring
Mirror Dimensions
A six image narrative by Tom Milton
I’ve been on a bit of a Doctor Strange kick recently.
It must have been my subconscious taking over when I recently had a Eureka moment while doing the dishes (well, putting them in the dishwasher).
You see, at home, we have this intricately patterned glass bowl. As i was putting the bowl in the dishwasher an idea popped into my head. Could the glass double as a homemade filter (more on those in the future as I’m on a bit of a filter fad too)? Doctor Strange’s Mirror Dimension seemed like the perfect fit to test this idea. Ignoring the rest of the dishes, I ran off, bowl in had and created a quick setup with the Sorcerer Supreme. Unfortunately this failed miserably with the details of the glass being too small and intricate when compared to a minifigure. Unperturbed and still feeling like I was on to a winner I returned to the kitchen and rounded up every piece of glassware I could find ready to try again. Several bowls, glasses and vase tests later and a short glass tumbler with rounded chamfer detailing seemed to solve my quandary.
Each of these photographs were taken after placing the minifigure subject inside said upside down tumbler and shooting through the glass. The varying cuts of the glass create a fracturing of both the lighting (a selection of micro LED torches and laser pointers in this case) and imagery to result in a kaleidoscope effect reminiscent of the movie’s alternate dimension. For those interested in trying this themselves, it’s the rounded sections of glass that help create fragments in the image that are both distinct yet linked to one another. Alternately the square glass details were too distorting to the point of loosing the subject matter.
As a result of this experimentation came this particular series. A six image narrative linked through style, experimentation and execution.
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I love these! They really do look like the Mirror Dimension. My favorite is the shot of The Ancient One 🙂 This is such a clever idea! I enjoyed reading how you came up with this idea while doing dishes 🙂 Fantastic shots 🙂
Lynn
Thanks Lynn. I ended with a lot of photos while experimenting but was really happy with the odd split of characters in the final six images, feeling the shot of The Ancient One was strong enough to sit on its own.
Pure serendipity! Gotta love when loading the dishwasher turns into such a fantastic set of photos, so perfectly suited to Doctor Strange’s world. Great job, Tom!
Thanks Teddi. I would say it inspired me to do the dishes more often, but… hmmmm. It required a lot of experimenting to find the best fractions of light through the right piece of glassware but it was definitely worth the effort and worked with the characters in question.
Tom, I really love this six image narrative. Not only is the style clever and unique, it reflects the nature of the movie and the comic strip. Who knew washing dishes could be so inspiring! Thanks for sharing these images as well as the technique you used to create them. Awesome work!!
Thanks Shelly. I’m glad I could share these images in this way, with the results of the experimentation really lending itself to the six image idea. I was a little unsure if my response to a narrative would fit alongside previous posts but thank you for going with it and publishing them, hopefully it expands the ideas and possibilities for everyone in the future.
What a great discovery, Tom! Perfect pairing with the Doctor Strange figures. I’m now inspired to see if any of my glassware is suitable for toy photos!
Thanks Leila, it was a lot of effort to find the right glass to make the idea work, but I guess it shows inspiration can come from almost anywhere.