Images by Erin Sullivan
When the pandemic hit and forced everyone indoors, travel photographer Erin Sullivan's world not only got smaller, it got miniature.
Erin, professionally known by the moniker “Erin Outdoors” spent over 50 per cent of her time on the road and in the great outdoors leading canoe trips to places like the Adirondacks, Costa Rica, China, Australia and Alaska.
In March 2020, she saw the writing on the wall. “I remember hitting pause just as I started to get the cancellation emails from all my jobs, like work for tourism boards and brands and collaborations. So I just started to get intentional about what could do with this time,” she says.
Erin remembered her childhood when she'd create and take imaginary outdoor adventures during playtime. That's when the lightbulb moment came. “A whole genre of miniature photography exists. I thought maybe I can get some figures, and the first thing I did was an ice cave with pillows and sheets. The series grew from there.”
Her miniature outdoor scenes, which she creates using household items and food like broccoli and pancakes, became a hit on social media. And her existing client base wanted in. “The travel industry was hit so hard. But interestingly, when I started doing this, I attracted the clients to me because they couldn't do in-person shoots. They needed a way to survive as businesses, market their products, their locations and their messages,” she recalls.
Images by Erin Sullivan
Erin is currently doing two to three photoshoots a week for her miniature outdoor scenes. Each can take 30 minutes to an hour to photograph, but the creative inspiration is a constant flow. She reflects, “I view creativity like a faucet. It comes from a higher power—something bigger like water, and it has to flow through you. If the faucet is off, and you're not creating, then the water doesn't have anywhere to flow. So for me, it's about keeping a journal and always sketching ideas out.”
While designing her scenes and working with the tiny figurines most often associated with the model train industry, Erin realized the racism inherent in the tiny figurine industry. “I would say upwards of 90 per cent, if not 95 per cent of the human figures are white or fair-skinned. It just goes to show that racism and colorism infiltrate every little thing. It even goes down to these tiny little figures that are the size of my fingernail.”
The model train industry has its roots in Germany in the late 1800s and became popular in America during the 1950s. "I began thinking about this. And just as I would want to portray the world accurately in my real-life images, I wanted to do so in these images too,” she says.
Erin uses Photoshop to add diversity by showing a range of skin tones, gender expressions and even adding colour to the clothing. “I haven't quite gotten there with body types or portraying disabilities,” she says.
Representation is an ongoing process for Erin, who says as a white cis woman she's on a lifelong journey of unlearning and unpacking her privilege.
“White supremacy is pervasive in every facet of our world. Travel and photography are both fairly recreational and fairly expensive. So you have to think about who has access to those things throughout history. If one people group has had more privilege in the form of economic or racial privilege, that advantage will carry through the generations. Until we get to a point where we see such disparities so clearly, they need to be intentionally unlearned and broken down so that they can be rebuilt in a way that's truly equitable,” Erin says.
To learn more about Erin and support her work, follow her on Instagram @erinoutdoors or visit her print shop.
