Get Inspired By ShootingTheGalaxy's Photography!

3/20/2019 Photography

You might have come across ShootingTheGalaxy on Instagram already, but if you haven't, here is more information about the man behind the fantastic photo series!

Hello everyone, my name is Matthew Cohen, or as some of you might know me as: ShootingtheGalaxy on Instagram and Flikr.

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was about 8 or 9, after having seen the originals on VHS in the mid 90s, followed shortly by the special editions and prequels in theaters after that. I started off with the POTF2 line, with a Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) figure that my mom bought me by accident instead of the Darth Vader figure I actually wanted. But by that point I was hooked for life. I was collecting toys up until around the mid 2000s when my interest in physical toys starting dying out as I got older. And video games became more prominent in addition to other usual life stuff (and responsibilities).

I started collecting again around 2015 when the first toys for The Force Awakens came out. My Fiance knew how much I loved the new Stormtrooper design, so she surprised me with the 6 inch Black Series version of it. Although this figure is what got me back into collecting, imagine my surprise when I realized how terrible of a figure it actually was. I was already familiar with TBS (having looked over the larger figures on store shelves before). But I couldn't believe how limited its elbow articulation was. Still, I ended up picking up a BS Kanan figure from Rebels shortly after that, which gave me a much better example of what TBS was all about. And from there, it just snowballed. I was hooked again.

I didn't get into toy photography, or photography in general, until 2016 when I picked up my first import figures. A Figuarts Jedi Luke and Mafex Darth Vader (ROTJ). I was feeling some buyers remorse wondering why I just spent over $100 on two small action figures when I had the idea to just pose them on my kitchen table and shoot them with my cell phone.Re-enacting scenes like their final duel and Vaders death. Shortly after that I discovered the toy photography community that lived on instagram. I wasn't on Insta until this discovery, having thought it was just a platform for food pics and selfies. So imagine my surprise when I found such a large toy community thriving on it. I grabbed an old point and shoot and cheap plastic tripod I had laying around and went to work, getting into the hobby more seriously. I practiced probably every day, multiple times a day for a year straight before the ideas started slowing a little bit. Until I got to where I am now, able to say that I'm proud of the shots I take.

If you would like to follow Matthew's work look him up on Instagram (@Shootingthegalaxy)! Thanks Matthew for making these amazing images available here on JediBusiness.com! Now take a look and check out the images!