it's a small world after all-for stephen webster
by Sam A. Marshall

"Talent entrance "reads the sign over a tiny, four-inch-high doorway to Stephen Webster's studio. A normal-sized, industrial-strength door stands next to it. "Some models who are come here get defensive about that," says the Columbus, Ohio-based photographer. "They think I'm making some kind of statement. But once they see my images, they laugh and get over it."

In reality, none of Webster's models need to use the tiny door. In most of his work, Webster relies on a miniature cast of hundreds-some the size of action figures, many not even a half inch tall-that he keeps on hand in his studio, stored away in the numerous tool organizer boxes and salvaged library cabinets in his 3000-square-foot factory space he calls Worldwide Hideout Inc. These storage containers accommodate housewives in long dresses, men in homburgs and flannel suits, cartoonish children and animals, even a singing cowboy with a guitar-all in miniature. These are the stars of his imagery, which, if anything, resembles a head on collision between René Magritte, a View Master, and the Brady Bunch.

It's not just the dolls and figurines that make Webster's images look off kilter. "Everything's cross processed [for a certain] saturation," Webster says. "I don't overexpose, so it doesn't have that cross processed look. I want the look of early postcards, hand colored and beyond is what I go for."

A quick glance through one of Webster's spiral-bound notebooks-what he calls his "Unportfolio"-further reveals a wacky, comic book-like world. Cleaning ladies sweep and polish the inside of a typewriter, Sperm-men swim to a bank. And a female figure stands atop a queen chess piece and surveys a toppled king chess piece.

"The toy images didn't start out as a style," Says Webster, a 1989 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design. His fascination with miniature, he explains, grew during his post school assisting days, when he lacked a studio. "They were studies for something bigger, more grandiose. When I put them in my book and went to New York in 1992, I got good feedback and work from several magazines, including Newsweek. When I showed them to [the stock agency] Photonica, they grabbed everything I had. "

Regular illustration for major business and financial magazines-such as Smart Money, Fortune, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and Inc.- is Webster's bread and butter. Meanwhile, he fields more lucrative, high-profile opportunities, such as a promotion for the Nickelodeon cable channel, TV Land, and other corporate work. Also, through exclusive representation with Photonica, he pulls in a dependable stock income.

Webster attributes his rapid ascent into this high-end market to his ability to put a lighter spin on difficult subjects. "My clients often have nothing tangible to show and they're tired of talking heads," he says. "Management, sexual harassment, mental illness in the workplace-any issue that's touchy or can't be shown physically is what I get."

One client, art director Matt Sanders, with the Palo Alto, California-based design firm Michael Patrick Partners, says that Webster "met a lot of needs" on the annual report for Diamond Multimedia, a company in the PC gaming industry. I was looking for a photographer with a bold and symbolic, yet playful," says Sanders. Webster's pumped up colors and creative abandon suited the company "very well," he adds. "They went for his irreverence right away, but they also appreciated the serious, conceptual thought behind the images."

While the corporate and financial magazine markets have embraced Webster's work, his images have also played well with books as varied as Travel & Leisure, Mademoiselle, and Bikini. Webster's sly approach proved useful for illustrating sex positions in a 1996 issue of GQ feature about women's preferences. "My early sketches were really risqué," he says, but his solution eventually quelled the magazine's fear of offending advertisers. One example of his innocent, G-rated, Columbus, Ohio-boy slant was to depict a female doll on the flat end of a wooden toy top. The caption read, naturally, "Woman on Top."

If Webster's rapport with editorial and corporate clients seems a happy accident, then his stock success appears even more unintentional. "I'm always shooting personal work, and I don't let commerce dictate the imagery," Webster says. He never sells all rights, he says, so his images go into his stock file soon after the magazine license expires.

Working with Photonica, a Japanese owned, New York based stock house known for its untraditional imagery, "I can shoot personal work, ship it, and see what happens. I don't assume it's an automatic sale. I just get lucky," Webster claims. Photonica Creative Director John Duffy, however sites intuition, not luck, as the real secret of Webster's success.

"The most successful images for us are open-ended," says Duffy. "Many of Stephen's images sell frequently, not only here, but in Japan and Europe as well, because they are suggestive rather than literal, applicable to multiple solutions. His retro subject matter is also very popular, especially in Japan."

Thanks to his use of toy subjects, Webster has overcome a common occupational hazard of shooting stock-making sure his models don't become anachronisms. However, "keeping up with the demographic requirements is harder for me than other photographers," says Webster, noting the use of static models. "The real real-looking figures are from train sets made in Germany, so the [social reality] stops around 1950. The women are all Donna Reed-types, and minorities are scarce. So, whenever I need to, I retouch photos with dyes to change hair and skin colors."

Most of Webster's toy shots have a depth of field that is barely more than a few centimeters, but his sets are much bigger than you might think. Typically, he uses a 12 X 12 inch-box (within which he creates, his set-ups, while his backgrounds can be as far as ten feet way from the set-up. He shoots with a medium-format studio camera-a Fuji GX680-"extended as far as you can get it."

An advantage of photographing inanimate subjects instead of live models, says Webster, is he can use hot lights and take as much time as he needs to get his shots right. Nonetheless, he likes a brisk pace. "I like quick feedback, since new work comes up suddenly and two sets are the most I like to have up at any one time," Webster says. With most of his clients out of town, he scans in Polaroid test shots and publishes them on his web site <www.worldwidehideout.com> for client review. "the lighting and angles are usually uncomplicated any more, so I nail most shots right away. Once I hear back [from the client], I correct for the final (if necessary), shoot it, tear down and move on."

Staying clear of Photoshop-type effects, Webster, who once aspired to a career in design instead of photography, controls compositional elements with multiple camera shots. Sometimes, when the situation calls for it, he has props, such as a Daliesque melting clock, created ad hoc.

While his subjects may be ageless, Webster himself keeps his professional image up-to-date

through frequent self promotion. His marketing strategies project as much cleverness as the images they promote. "I don't do promotion to get work as much as I do work to pay for my self promotion," quips Webster. His direct mail efforts allow him to indulge his humor and experimentation. One award winning self promo, on which he collaborated with his designer/wife, Chris, urged recipients-in a campy, fifties, advertising style-to "Join the Worldwide Hideout Junior Ranger Club Today!" Another time, he mailed out packs of trading cards- with his own images, naturally-that even included sticks of bubble gum. And appropriately, the last four digits of his phone number spell out "TOYS."

Direct mail has broadened his reach to national clients. Although he acknowledges that more money is "always nice," Webster claims that he's exited more by the chance to do interesting work. "The budget doesn't really enter into it," he says. ""I've always joked that my prop budget never exceeds $2 because they come from gumball machines." Most often Webster prefers to shoot editorial more than corporate. "There's more trust and latitude, and it's not as tightly controlled."

Self promotions also keep his newest work in front of art directors. "It's inevitable when you've achieved a certain style that a client will expect you to deliver your 'greatest hits' from five years ago," says Webster noting an all-too-common trap. "I've also been seeing some photographers trying to knock of my [subjects], but most of them still don't get the more subtle ideas. [The imitation] is frustrating, but the good thing, as several of my mentors have said, is that it forces you to grow."

Webster has recently been cultivating new techniques and taking creative risks on assignments-including working with live models and larger props, and committing to a catalogue project. Different subject matters are already obvious, but hasn't abandoned his beloved Surrealism.

"I've always tried to take a fresh approach, and I've been making 10-degree turns all along," says Webster. While organizing a slide presentation for PhotoPlus West earlier this year, Webster saw a progression unfold. "As I edited my slides," he recalls, "I realized my work so far has come out of a passion for shooting and finding out what I want to do. Even though other work may be similar on the surface, I still have a lot of different things going on."

With what Webster has learned recently, he says he's ready to take his work a 90-degree turn.

(Reprinted by permission of Photo District News 1997, and Sam A. Marshall)