Tomm Morton- Our Smallworld
Our Smallworld is an ethnographic photo study centered on capturing and sharing the experiences of members of a bi-annual micro festival community. Morton seeks to highlight the idyllic time spent at the Smallworld miniature festival and to examine the motivations and philosophies of its community. Through interviews and portraits Tomm set out to travel the country to uncover a scattered community held together by the universal experiences of kinship, art and self-expression. With less than 1000 dedicated members, this Small World community has become its own un-official tribe, self-sustainable and ever growing in an age where Hippies and travelers are a misrepresented stereotype. With the help of those included in the books and the Small world community Morton hopes to rectify this distortion and portray each member away from the festival scene, in their own homes and native environments.
“It’s like your second home, it’s where people meet, you have a lot of deep connections with people but never get to all be in the same place. So Small World is where we all reconnect with people from eco villages, you’ve got our pixie cat family, new families coming in. It’s a pleasure to watch people grow into themselves because you’ll come one year, and then they come the second year and they get hooked, they become totally different people, happier more relaxed. Then they tell their friends, the word gets out and they come and start to realize that Smallworld is home, it’s our second home for people who have the same wavelength.”
It’s the best festival ever! “I think a lot of the reason for this amazing feeling is from the people who go to Small World are all performers and musicians and clowns and fairies and acrobats, and so there’s that magical creative energy all the time at the festival. So, it’s so easy to just…be creative and to really like going with that energy and come up with some really awesome memories. But most of the time we’re just doing it because it’s fun, and we’re just like “Wow this is great, this is really fun!” Like our rowing boat happened for the first time in Small World last year. And we’ve got our boat and we take it out for rows around the festivals…It IS invisible, we lose it sometimes, but we do ask people if they’ve seen it sometimes when we can’t find it. But then more often than not people play along at Small World that would necessarily play along at other festivals as much.” Website: www.thelightscaper.com Instagram: @thelightscaper Facebook: /TommLightscapesphotography