The Man Behind a Mysterious Miniature Town | Short Film Showcase

Elgyn part. Yes, it's a very neutral place; there's no conflict there. It's colorless. People who look at my photographs will bring their own stories. They'll say, "Oh, this reminds me of the house that I grew up in." "We were in a car crash; it looks something very similar to that." So it brings those stories out in people.

There was a Popeye cartoon when Olive Oyl was walking on a building being built, and every time she was about to step off a girder, it came. That's my life. My resume looks like what's available in the job force for a cabinetmaker. Mailman? Got bit on the first day. I said, "I'm sorry, I quit." I was the art director for a national company, and I fell on the floor and I turned blue from that job. I went to become a bartender at a very sketchy bar. I got fired because I would not wear hot pants.

That's one of my next jobs from that. I said, "I'm gonna be a lawnmaker." Everything you do, you will learn from it, and you'll use it later on in life. When I was a mailman, it made me aware of how streets are laid out, how towns grow. My photographs read well because there is a logic to it. Alton Park is not just my little fantasy; I'm documenting the 20th century in a way.

I put my stuff out on the web for Bodhi here, and over a year, I got around 1,000 hits. But someone in England who worked for a car magazine sent me an email and said, "Can I show one or two of your photographs, you know, just as though, 'Oh, isn't this interesting?' kind of thing." The day it hit the stands, it went from a thousand hits to a million hits within a day, and then it kept going and going and going.

I was delighted, and I got emotional about it, and then it was the, "Oh my God, what have I done?" kind of thing. And then people... I'm a recluse. I mean, I'm very personable, and I can, you know, go outside and talk to people, but recognition is tough for me. It actually stems from when I was young; I was bullied in school. I was bullied because I was different. I think I'm still dealing with that, still struggling with what that means and all that.

I don't think about it a lot, but, you know, it does bubble up. I just realized I've come into this reality at a slightly different angle. There was the whole issue of being gay. I mean, from kindergarten, I absolutely knew. From kindergarten, because there was one boy came in, I went, "I liked that person." The bullying got so bad that the teachers let me leave class 15 minutes before the bell rang because they knew how I can't romped on.

It's like one did people say, "You know, I want them to say we like you. You know, you're interesting." If anybody has been depressed, I mean, you kind of know what that road feels like. And then it gets more and more narrow, and narrower, and darker and darker. And then for myself, it got to the point where it was a form of liberation because it's like, "I can end this."

I tried to kill myself a number of times because of a lot of reasons. Each time, it was almost like I got my messages from my future self that said, "You're gonna get through this, and you're going to make a difference in your own little way in the world." So I needed a place that I felt comfortable in and also to be incredibly creative. And I constructed Elgin Park, which is a sort of a dreamlike recreation of my past.

Elgin Park is never a lonely place for me. It really is a fountain of creativity because I never know what the next scene is gonna be, so it's always challenging me and inspiring me. I admit, 40 years ago, recreational drugs—definitely LSD was my choice. I remember taking it for the first time. "Here we go."

I learned a very interesting lesson while taking it is that I didn't have to do the foreign lands to perform, people and stuff like that. I mean, I went inwardly. I was in territory that I had absolutely no idea where it was. I created Elgin Park so anybody can be there. In some ways, it mirrors, it's a miniaturization of real life when I'm creating my scenes and all that because this period took care of details and making sure everything's in its place.

Elgin Park does have a darker side. It's not even or anything like that, but some of it is based on stories that I've heard when I was little. I'm finally about the more gruesome parts, but yeah, that's kind of... you kind of need that spookiness or whatever makes it interesting. I think the longest I've taken for a project was four months, and that's the house they built—the house that I grew up in.

It was therapy. There were some questionable stuff happening in my family back then. We kids were asked to go outside and play, but I knew that they had a fascinating story. So I would hide and listen to the adults talk. I had some relatives that were missing a father. After he was dropped, I found out why. People were murdered; people were mutilated. Those are pretty tough stories.

Some of the stories for Elgin Park are inspired by those, so there's hints in it. Yeah, I won't go down; there's too much bad in the world. I don't need my Elgin Park does not need the bad, you know? And when I was a kid, I always wanted to change the world in some way, and I didn't know how to do it.

You know, all these jobs I've had and all that, maybe this can make the world better and better. But then it come to find out, it’s the thing that I like to do the most. Would I put it out there? And it has changed so many people. A lot of people say, "Why can't they?" They'll write to me and say, "I can't do photography, and I don't know; I have a camera." I said, "That's not that. Can you sing?" Or, you know, so we'll have conversations like that.

What else can you do? Somebody found out he wrote, you know, can write really well and started publishing some stuff. I'd like to think that I have helped, and it has helped, and it is still helping. Elgin Park now has atmosphere and gravity. I mean, it is on its own, so if it ends for me, I think it will continue.

It has made an impact. I must feel like I'm finished. I'll be finishing up the loose ends of my life. I mean, I don't maybe I'll be here another 20 years. I don't know. But, you know, if I passed away tomorrow, that's perfect. I feel like I've done something. My tag line is, "The keys are in the car, there's a full tank of gas, and the food is good at the diner." You know, that's Elgin Park. I don't care who you are.