Where Photographers Break the Frame, and the Models are Barbies and Baubles

Allan Teger and David Parise, two Florida-based photographers, snap their cameras in their photoshoots using models as their visual focus. But unlike typical models, the subjects with the heavy lights on them are not of flesh and bones – but of plastic. 

While Teger’s eerie black-and-white images and Parise’s glamorous high-fashion photos are quite different, they share a technique on the part of the photographers: the creation of eye-catching imagery through the use of tiny plastic figurines or 12-inch Barbie dolls. 

Both photographers showcase their work at local art shows – such as the Las Olas Art Fair in Fort Lauderdale in early March and the Downtown West Palm Beach Art Festival on April 5 and 6 – where potential customers can walk away with something distinct for their home decor that they can’t find anywhere else.

Teger, 82, started his Bodyscapes photography series about 50 years ago, placing miniature black figurines he found from a railroad set on nude human bodies. The body’s surface is to replicate a rural landscape, and he says that zooming in his lens creates an illusion of sorts. 

In this small world, Parise happened to walk past Teger’s work at the Coconut Grove Art Festival in Miami about 20 years ago, which inspired him to create his Vintage Barbie & Ken Photos project – with a similar motive to the 2023 Barbie movie to transport the dolls into real-life scenarios like shopping in the city or sipping wine while reading a magazine.

Parise’s booth at the Las Olas Art Fair, for example, drew large crowds fascinated by his playful photos. Teger’s photography made some stop and stare or even laugh, trying to understand the meaning behind the art. One example is his “Fishing Trip” shot, where a fisherman casts his line into the water. But if you look closely, the pond is a belly button filled with water.

Teger, who currently resides in Vero Beach, places these lifeless characters in scenes doing actions such as mountain climbing on a woman’s breast or lawn mowing on a human’s stomach, cutting pubic hair. 

What fuels his creative process is seeing the reactions of others to his work at art festivals. He aims to create something where people shift their perspective to understand their own mental process, whether they see the body or the figurine first.

“And both ways are valid. Hopefully, that will help people realize: ‘I can change my mind. I can open my mind. I can see things in more ways than one.’ And God knows, we need that in our culture,” he said. 

When Teger first displayed his collection in 1976, he said the shots shocked the art scene, with some parents pulling their children away. But Teger says these photos that can be seen as explicit are not about nudity or sex, but about perception. With an academic background in psychology, he wanted to offer a way to look at life differently through his art, making viewers stop and think. 

Teger said he first started this project using film for his shots but now uses a Nikon digital camera and microlens to zoom in on the figures on the anonymous human body. Teger says he doesn’t use Photoshop or computer editing; his objective is not to fool anyone with something that isn’t there.

While Teger’s work is more on the technical side of this niche art scene, Parise, popularly known as “The Barbie Guy,” stated that his project was a hobby that grew into a business about 16 years ago. “Cruising Beverly Hills” is one of his most popular shots among customers at various art festivals – it features a Barbie doll smoking a cigarette in a convertible with her mini-poodle. 

Parise, 72, uses original Barbie and Ken dolls to bring back nostalgia for the 1960s lifestyle and fashion. He says one of his goals is to normalize the dolls, which he calls his “models,” by removing Barbie’s “posh” look and adding the grit of human life. Originally from New York, Parise spends “the season” in Florida and is currently in Delray Beach. He holds a license from Mattel, which owns the trademark for Barbie and Ken dolls, allowing him to use the dolls in his work freely.

Before the glitz and glam, Parise began photographing European miniature figurines and setting the scenes in Wynwood, Miami, but something just wasn’t clicking. That was until 2009 when Parise was led to a bookstore where he found Barbie’s 50th Anniversary catalog showcasing the doll’s fashion and history. 

With a passion for fashion, having worked in the garment industry in the ‘80s, an idea sparked him to start incorporating these vintage ‘60s Barbie dolls in his work, which he later purchased from eBay. With a storage room full of about 40 dolls, he had no intention of keeping them in the box, and he doesn’t consider himself a collector either. 

The first scene he shot for this project was on Miami Beach, where he was residing at the time, with the 12-inch models on the sand. Parise would lie on his stomach to get to the dolls’ level, immersing himself in their world to capture the shot. 

Parise doesn’t use zoom features or special camera lenses to capture shots with his Hasselblad digital camera. He uses minor visual editing tools to enhance the shot and make the dolls “life-size.” Depending on the shot, he said he would capture the doll on location for the “natural” lighting and then Photoshop a backdrop such as a storefront or a beach in the background. 

One local customer, Bria Pallas, instead of shopping online on Amazon for artwork for her apartment, stopped by Parise’s tent at the Las Olas Art Fair on March 2 after seeing him at last year’s art show. 

She bought two prints from the “On The Beach!” collection, both for $30, attracted by their “old-style charm” that fit the Art Deco theme of her apartment decor. One of the prints features two Barbies on the beach, which made Pallas think of her relationship with her sister.

“It’s iconic. You can go anywhere in the world, and everybody recognizes what Barbie is,” she said. “Somehow, you can kind of see yourself and other people in the figures.”

At one of Parise’s previous shows, a customer said, “I see what you’ve got going on; we’re all living in a plastic society.” Parise laughed and replied, “That’s interesting, but no, I’m just having fun here. You’re a little too deep for me.”

“It’s just a picture to have fun with and represent the ‘60s,” he said, referring to the quote on his website that reads: “All of us loved the glamour and innocent lifestyle of the ‘60s, or at least what we imagined it to be.”