US Marine photographer recreates iconic war photography with Star Wars action figures

We just posted about Felix’s Sandtroopers project yesterday, but is it too soon to post another Star Wars miniature related project?  We don’t think so, so here’s a behind the scenes look into photographer Matthew Callahan’s essay, Galactic Warfighters.

As a US Marine, Matthew serves as a combat correspondent, giving him special insight into war photography that many of us will never be able to experience first hand.  In his Galactic Warfighters series, Matthew aims to humanise the faceless soldiers of the Star Wars universe by combining the worlds of science fiction with real world war photography scenes.

Basing his work off real world scenes, and iconic war photography images, Matthew definitely brings these small characters to life.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-oaNsHERjV

The image above is based on Lucian Read’s “Hell House” photograph shot in November, 2004.  You can see the original image here on Lucian’s website.  The next image is based off a picture of Sgt. William Bee photographed by Goran Tomasevic in May, 2008.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-U_kw-ERuF/?taken-by=galactic_warfighters

Matthew’s technical abilities are at least as impressive as the mood and emotion that these images pass along to the viewer, taking miniature action figures and breathing life into them.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-UK–OERp5/?taken-by=galactic_warfighters

https://www.instagram.com/p/_mNOSekRiF/?taken-by=galactic_warfighters

As with a lot of miniature photography, Matthew creates staged scenes in which to photograph the action figures.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_mgdhIERsW/?taken-by=galactic_warfighters

When the fighting’s all over, sometimes you just want your subject to sit for a nice studio portrait.

https://www.instagram.com/p/9Jd_wRkRkt/?taken-by=galactic_warfighters

It’s a very cool project, and the real world inspiration gives it an interesting twist.

You can find out more about Matthew Callahan and the Galactic Warfighters project on his website, and follow the project over on Instagram.