How We Did It...

 

This exhibition was a collaborative effort between Kruger Collection former Curator, Amber Mohr, and the New Media Center. In a desire to bring the experience of a personal storage area tour to more individuals and to emphasize the detail and historical accuracy involved in each miniature, digital media seemed the best venue for this type of presentation.

 

This exhibition combined an old technique: stop-motion photography, with new techniques: digital photography and virtual reality movies. Each object was arranged on a turntable which rotated every ten degrees. Each turn saw some small manipulation by the Curator, and each rotation required a new photograph. Most objects in the exhibition have 36 images to create their virtual reality movie but a few needed two full rotations, or 72 separate images, in order to perform every function of the miniature. The process was laborious, and required the talents of a skilled photographer.

 

Joel Stuthman has experience in performance arts photography and macro photography for horticulture, but this was his first attempt at stop-motion photography. Each object presented a new challenge and required a new set-up. The camera had to be tightly focused in order to render the proper amount of detail, but also had to account for the object's components moving within the frame. Joel was happily challenged by this project, and perhaps his biggest compliment came from the late Eloise Kruger herself. Ms. Kruger photographed her own room designs and shared them with fellow enthusiasts, but lamented that the pictures did not do the miniatures justice. During shooting, the Curator came across a letter Eloise Kruger had written to Eric Pearson on June 1, 1964 where she elaborates on the difficulty of photographing miniatures:

Have had a University of Nebr[aska] professor of photography trying to take pictures of some miniature rooms. He came with some magnificent cameras and a 'Pooh, pooh, my good woman, this is child's play' attitude. It turned out there were only four he would even consider enlarging out of a dozen, and he considers them terrible. He promises to return anon with complicated lights and a determined expression. Now that he knows they are real little stinkers to photograph, probably he will do better.

Joel will agree that they are "real little stinkers to photograph." See Joel's equipment list and step-by-step process for photographing the miniatures.

 

With the wealth of images created for the dime shots, each image in the virtual reality movies, and each object detail image, the task fell to Catherine Meier to design the pages that would present the exhibition and make the task of touring easy to navigate. Catherine was able to produce a design that allows the visitor to design their own tour, or follow the intended path of the Curator. Visitors can easily have fun "playing" with the objects and images, or can delve deeper into the text and accompanying documents.

 

Great amounts of time, talent, and energy went into this exhibition, and we hope you have enjoyed it. Please feel free to contact the current Curator DiAnna Hemsath (dhemsath2@unl.edu ) if you have comments or would like more information about the exhibition.