Doll’s houses don’t seem to lend themselves to the horror of war. But toy figures, alongside furniture plucked from the Malibu apartments of Barbie and Ken, form the centre pieces of Paolo Ventura’s War Souvenir photographs – fake portraits of life in occupied Italy during World War Two.
Shots of the battlefield are deliberately absent. Unlike American troops, who could afford cameras, poorer European soldiers had to visit studios to create their war souvenirs. The result: surreal shots of soldiers in calm, domestic environments – a feeling recreated here.