Cancún, Mexico : When you step into the world of Felix Hernandez, you don’t just look at photographs. You enter places he builds from scratch. He calls this “Dreamphography,” a word that tells you exactly what he does: he turns imagination into images. If you love photography or art, his work gives you a clear reminder that pictures don’t need to record reality. They can build new ones.
Hernandez grew up in Mexico City. As a child, he spent hours making things with his hands. He played, experimented, and created small fictional spaces. He never stopped. He studied graphic design, worked in painting and advertising, and then moved toward photography. The shift didn’t feel dramatic. It felt natural. He simply picked up a camera and kept building worlds the way he had always done.
Today, he runs his studio, Hernandez Dreamphography, from Cancún. He produces scenes that look like epic landscapes or film stills, yet everything starts on a table in his studio. Instead of photographing real environments, he builds miniature ones. He uses small cars, tiny structures, dust, smoke, flour, lights, and hand-made textures. He treats every model as if it were full-scale. He controls the weather, the atmosphere, the story. This process gives you images that feel real even though they come from a completely crafted world.
Hernandez doesn’t hide how he works. He says he uses scale models because they give him freedom. He wants to move them around, change them, take them anywhere, and shoot them under any light he wants. When he creates these scenes, he handles everything himself. He builds the props, shapes the dioramas, lights the scene, and then finishes the story during post-production. The method is slow but deliberate. You can feel the detail in every frame.
His work has appeared in major publications. BBC TopGear Magazine featured his automotive scenes. Digital Photo and Retouched Magazine wrote about his process. Fstoppers and Petapixel broke down his shoots and behind-the-scenes setups. His images circulate widely because they stand out. They don’t rely on exotic locations or expensive sets. They rely on craft and vision.
Hernandez has also judged major competitions, including the Hamdan International Photography Awards in Dubai and the Art Directors Club Awards in New York. He won international recognition for his studio photography in 2018, when one of his miniature-based works earned 1st Place at the International Photography Awards. He often repeats a line that reveals exactly how he thinks: “Photography for me is not to portray what exists out there. It portrays what exists in me.”
If you’re a photographer, his work teaches you something practical: scale doesn’t matter. Vision does. You can pick up a toy car, add a little dust, shape a simple set, and still create a believable world. You don’t need a mountain or desert or studio the size of a warehouse. You need patience, clarity, and a sense of story. You need to care about how light hits a surface and how textures behave under a macro lens. His approach shows you that real creativity grows through small decisions made with care.
Look closely at his images. You’ll notice controlled depth of field, wide-angle choices, and sometimes focus stacking to make the scene feel life-sized. You’ll see the way he adds particles to the air to mimic fog or snow. You’ll notice his balance of crisp edges and soft details. He uses physical effects before digital tools. That choice gives his work weight and mood. You feel like the scene exists somewhere outside the frame.
He also teaches. His course “Cinematic Realism with Scale Models” breaks down his entire workflow. He covers planning, building, lighting, and finishing. He explains camera gear in plain language. He shows how to build textures that look real on camera. The class helps photographers understand not only how he works but why each step matters.
Felix Hernandez continues to work for well-known brands like Audi, Volkswagen, and Nickelodeon. Companies hire him because his style doesn’t look like anything else. But even in commercial work, his images hold the same sense of personal vision. You can tell he built them. You can tell they come from a place inside him, not from a preset or template.
When you browse his portfolio, you’ll see cars racing through fog, planes lifting off into stylized skies, and small figures standing in dramatic light. You’ll see scenes that feel quiet, lonely, warm, or tense. Every piece invites you to stop for a moment. Think about where the story begins. Think about where it goes. The more time you spend with his work, the more you understand that simplicity often carries more emotional weight than complexity.
For art lovers, Felix Hernandez offers something refreshing. He doesn’t ask you to decode symbols or search for heavy meanings. He asks you to feel something. His images speak through atmosphere and mood. You experience them the same way you experience dreams: not as facts, but as impressions.
For photographers, his work removes excuses. You don’t need the perfect location. You don’t need perfect timing. You need intention. You need curiosity. You need to stay open to playing, even as an adult. That’s what he does. He plays. And he turns that play into art that reaches people across the world.
Felix Hernandez reminds you that photography becomes powerful when you build what you want to see instead of waiting for the world to offer it to you. His journey shows you how far imagination takes you when you trust it. His images show you that small things can carry big stories. And his process shows you that creative freedom grows when you take control of your world, even if that world fits on a tabletop.
Felix Hernandez : Website | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube
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