Keith Loutit and the small worlds

Sydney photographer and filmmaker Keith Loutit attracted an internet and media sensation, following the release of his ‘Bathtub’ series of short films that transformed both iconic and familiar Sydney scenes into miniature wonderlands. Known as the pioneer of the tilt-shift / time-lapse technique, Loutit was the first to recognize how time and focus combine to support the powerful illusion of miniaturization in film. In his scaled down and sped up realities, real world subjects become their miniature counterparts. Boats bob like toys in a bathtub, cars race like slot-cars, and crowds march as toy armies. Loutit’s aim is create a sense of wonder in our surroundings by “challenging people’s perceptions of scale, and helping the viewer to distance themselves from places they know well”.