Photographer Crafts Elaborate and Funny Photo Sets From Paper

There is absolutely nothing that says you have to stop playing with paper and scissors when you become an adult. I mean, heck, you can now legally buy your own scissors, so why not!

Adriana Napolitano is pretty much the Edward Scissorhands of set design. “I started to create sets for stop motion videos,” she says. “I always loved to create stuff with my hands. I think it’s a family thing.” But, regardless of her genetic predisposition, Adriana truly has a natural talent for creative flare. So, when her boyfriend, who is a photographer, started teaching her more about lighting and how to best capture her projects, she set about developing a portraits series with elaborate props and costumes – all made out of paper.

All of the props in the photos are created using preschool materials. “I create my sets with a lot of patience and a lot of Band-Aids and make everything stay in place with tape and prayers.”

Even still, I was curious as to exactly how much of the images were part of the set versus being craftily manipulated in post-production. “Mostly everything is captured in-camera. I use Photoshop for color correction and maybe to fix some [minor stuff], but everything is giant and real,” she explained. Well, that impressed me. About the most I’ve done with paper is make airplanes as a distraction from class in high school.

“I want to try some compositing with small scale sets and real people, but not now, maybe in the future when I will have better compositing skills,” she commented about her future goals. “For now, I really enjoy the surprise effect of the big scale, actually.”

“To the aspiring photographers, I would say that I’m an aspiring photographer myself and that the important thing is never stop being an ‘aspiring-something.'”

You can check out more of Adriana’s work on her website, or follow her on Facebook to see more whimsical updates.