Small stuff is having a moment — and photographer Christopher Boffoli isn't at all surprised. His series of miniature scene-setting food photos was inspired by the films and TV shows he watched growing up.

Bitter End: "Sally could imagine no end more glamorous than throwing herself off a tower of meringue cookies."

Christopher Boffoli

Blackberry C.S.I.: "If they'd only realized that the killer was right there in the crowd."

Christopher Boffoli

Caramel Apple Accident: "After several ignored warnings, Joby finally understood acutely the dangers of caramel work."

Christopher Boffoli

Ice Cream Sandwich Monolith: "My God, it's full of — vanilla ice cream!"

Christopher Boffoli

Lemon Bar Snow Day

Christopher Boffoli

Mustard Technician: "Gary always uses too much mustard. But no one can say so. It's a union thing."

Christopher Boffoli

Plowed In: "As soon as you get shoveled out they plow you right back in."

Christopher Boffoli

Rosemary Christmas Tree Shopping

Christopher Boffoli

Salt Sledding

Christopher Boffoli

Sundae Skiers

Christopher Boffoli

Wafer Cookie Lineup: "Number three step forward please."

Christopher Boffoli

Harry's Secret: "With his history no one would have believed it was an accident."

Christopher Boffoli

"When I was young the cones were so big you could drive a car through them."

Christopher Boffoli

Small stuff is having a big moment. There's skateboarding for your fingers, cupcake-size lasagna, and now we've discovered photography featuring food as a backdrop for miniature life. In a nutshell, that's the theme of Christopher Boffoli's Big Appetites series, on display at Seattle's Winston Wachter gallery through Dec. 21.

"If you consider how many museums are filled with ancient artifacts that are tiny representations of people and things ... you realize that we've been fascinated with miniatures for tens of thousands of years," Boffoli tells The Picture Show via email.

A family camps in a sugar cone forest; skiers take to the slopes of an ice cream sundae: Boffoli's photos seem to imagine the scenes that play out around our food when we aren't looking. But food itself also looms large in the images, which, according to Boffoli's website, represent "an American enthusiasm for excess, especially in the realm of food."

Boffoli describes his process as usually starting with the food. Then he dives into his collection of miniature props and figures to find a clever match. And once he's done, he'll often write a clever caption.

Boffoli tells The Picture Show that he was inspired by childhood films and TV shows — especially ones that showed tiny people in a normal sized world.

"One of the very first that made an impression was a recurring segment on Captain Kangaroo with these tiny people who lived in an animal cracker box behind the books on one of his bookshelves," Boffoli writes.

And he knows he's not alone in this niche genre. We featured a similar artist back in August, and an artist named Slinkachu has also gotten some recognition. Boffoli says he intended for his work to draw attention to a "cultural fascination with tiny things," and it's only natural that other artists would share that interest.

Boffoli is currently working on a book of these photos, which he expects to be released in fall 2013.

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