As a young boy I was fascinated by sci-fi movies and all the fantastic things depicted in them. One thing that always frightened me in such movies was robots. I found the idea so disturbing that a machine could move about at will, or that a machine could have an evil intent. From that early impression, I developed a fearful apprehension of large, industrial machines; machines that had grinding toothy gears that I feared could reach out, grab me and chew me up. I was so fearful of robots that as a boy I would never entertain the idea of having one in my room. I couldn’t imagine having one in my bedroom at night… while sleeping in the dark. You never know, it might come alive, grow to a larger size and come after me.

I eventually grew to love robots and have a small collection of famous movie robots. Like many robot fans, my all-time favorite is Robby the Robot from the groundbreaking 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. This movie made an indelible impact on my love of sci-fi, my design and lighting aesthetic, and even my taste in music due to the use of the first electronic music soundtrack.

I had the thought of making a series of images based on “Childhood Fears” and my fear of robots and machines in general came to mind. Luckily, I had a willing model for my first image!

This Robby is only eight inches tall, so I think I can sleep soundly.