Maico Akiba Creates a Unique Sekai (World) Photo Series on the Backs of Animals

All images by Maico Akiba. Used with permission.

The art of photography is all about how you capture the world but Maico Akiba goes one step further in her Sekai (Japanese for world) by creating tiny ecosystems on the backs of wooden animals.

Maico, who is an experienced sculptor and artist, creates scenes of tiny grass patches and trees taking back the city, growing over everything from telephone poles to buildings. Of course, these miniature worlds are also spouting from the backs of mammoths, hippos, dinosaurs, and an assortment of other animals. All these elements combine together to create a post-apocalyptic world that evokes the imagery from “I am Legend” and an Earth without humans.

The magic behind Maico’s work is she first buys small animal figurines from the National Museum of Art and Design Tokyo museum shop. She then paints the animals with acrylic paints and bonding agents to adhere man-made structures, bushes, trees, and grass taken from train sets.

Maico’s work has become so popular, it’s even sprouted a series of cellphone straps in 2012. To see more of Maico’s work hit the jump and visit her website.