Although Toni Hafkenscheid’s “Landscape” photographs depict actual landscapes, they create the illusion of model train sets or architectural maquettes. The images are arrived at solely through the use of in-camera focus and exposure techniques. Through an extremely shallow depth of field and meticulous lighting conditions, not to mention the artist’s own gifts of mise-en-scene and drama, Hafkenscheid has developed an almost magical ability for shrinking a life-sized and complicated modern world into fascinating, oblique little dioramas of an idealized American dream.

Born in Rotterdam in 1959, Toni Hafkenscheid graduated from Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam) in 1989. He lives and works in Toronto. Hafkenscheid has received several Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council awards and has exhibited extensively throughout Canada and in New York, Chicago, Amsterdam and Tokyo. Collections include the Canadian Museum for Contemporary Photography, Kodak France, Kodak Netherlands, and the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art (NY).