I like the interiors of the Lego Star Wars sets. I am talking about stock interiors, not customs. Customs, or MOC’s, look great of course, but I like to photograph stock items. A MOC set has no limits, it can be anything. Photographing those isn’t that much about photography but rather about the build. To me there is a difference although I do like a good MOC, they can be rather incredible at best.

Over the years I have photographed Lego interiors from time to time, most actively during the past few weeks. I had had a pause with photographing Lego altogether for a while. There had been just an individual frame here and not really Star Wars at all. Frankly, I thought it was over for me and Lego Star Wars. It’s a long story really but in a nutshell I had to re-evaluate the whole thing, find a new approach altogether. So, a few weeks ago I took some sets out from storage, sat down and gave them a good hard look. I had a new camera frame, some free time in my hands and I thought I’d dive in and see what happens.

I’ve selected a few images here to best illustrate development on the interiors theme. It is because that is what I’ve been most inspired by recently.

There are not that many Star Wars sets with good interiors. Good for photography, that is. The combo of Jabba’s Lair and Rancor’s Pit is quite nice. Also the UCS Mos Eisley Cantina set is delightfully big and versatile offering various possibilities. These three I had in storage. I had photographed the earlier small cantina set (#75052) too but it was quite limited what could be done with it. With that one I cheated a little. I have two sets, I tried to make the it look bigger by combining them and adding a floor made from tan 2x2 studless plates.

Jabba’s Prize, 2015. I don’t know if I could do this complex a photograph today. In small part this is because I have misplaced the lamp I used for lighting this. It was my favourite. Everything counts though.

First a look back. Jabba’s Prize was the first real success in photographing Lego Star Wars set interiors. It was made under immense pressure as exclusive content for my book Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy in the summer of 2015. This photograph baffled me because even though it is a bit dark it worked out so well that whenever I tried to do something similar later I failed. I don’t know what I did right with this one, it felt like a fluke and it actually discouraged me to continue pursuing this for a good while.

In 2017 I made a series of Halloween images, one of which was from the cramped inside of a AT-ST walker. It shows a freezing cold dawn light on the planet Hoth, one for the interiors theme.

The inside of the small AT-ST is very small. Not too many options to place the camera in there. The set 8038 The Battle of Endor is from 2009 and the AT-ST from it is still my go-to walker despite the many walkers released since then. Although the recent Hoth walker (#75322) does look rather nice.
Max’s Dungeon Jam, 2018. This is a lovely interior, it’s high enough for the ceiling to not come in the way, it’s removable too so that lighting can be done in many different ways.

Max’s jam session was photographed in the same combo set than Jabba’s Prize but this time the downstairs dungeon was repurposed for something else. In the internal reality of the photograph it was still Jabba’s Lair but used for music sessions. A fun idea and it worked well.

The Cantina Story, 2019. Everyone wants to just sit down and take a moment sometimes. Maybe a cup of coffee or blue milk – or perhaps a latte made with blue milk. This was made with the small Cantina set by combinging two of them and adding a neat studless floor.

The Mos Eisley Cantina is a fan favourite from the 1977 film. No surprise there, it’s a wonderful setup, all those alien customers, what a cornucopia of possibilities! Luke Skywalker’s visit to the cantina is an explosion in cinematic world building. I have toyed with the idea of exploring the cantina and its clientele, maybe shedding some light to what goes down in the booths and dark corners of the cantina.

The Conversations, 2024. This is basically just a variation of a recurring idea of the trooper TK-24/7 just hanging around in the Mos Eisley Cantina when not in duty. The joke being that he rarely, if ever, takes off his armor. I just love this big UCS Cantina set.
This is a series of photographs, sketches and variations of the idea leading to the finished photograph below. I wanted to photograph the actually rather nice Anakin podracer but didn’t get it to work before bringing it indoors. It took several attempts even after that.

The Garagefind, 2024, is an example of how a photograph can end up indoors via a process.

The Garagefind, 2024 (this should be called The Barnfind but I realised that long after I posted it and I’m not going to change it retroactively). I’m happy with how this turned out eventually.

The header image Empty Rooms, 2024, an attempt to come up with different angles with the Jabba’s Lair set. I wish I had more of those golden Lego coins.

So, I have been inspired with this interior thing as of late and it has been very enjoyable. There’ll be more of these I’m sure but I need to find more sets suitable for this. Shooting in only these three sets can get repetitive fast. I may have to venture outside this franchise to expand.

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Tags: inspirations, Lego, Star Wars, tk-24/7