Mayumi Terada was born in Japan and lives in New York.

Terada originally trained as a sculptor and her photographs are not what they seem. Her subjects are familiar yet wholly artificial environments and objects.

These seemingly simple domestic spaces and intimate landscapes are a miniature world fashioned out of balsa wood and Styrofoam, clay and fabric, and then photographed using strikingly atmospheric lighting. As Terada has explained, these 'dollhouses' resonate with memories:

'I began to make many different kinds of objects for the house - stairs, windows, and curtains - that was how the Dollhouse series came about. The series is mainly based on my memories, which I wanted to share with the audience. I deliberately chose a minimal design, which made the images more universal, regardless of individual tastes in home furnishing... Ultimately everything is painted white. The images are all shot with natural light... I do not use a computer at all.... coming from sculpture and handling plaster, black and white is an obvious choice for me'.