“Otherworldly,” a new exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, looks at artists who painstakingly craft miniature worlds by hand. The show includes work by several photographers who, by lighting and photographing their scale models, produce images that are at once realistic and ambiguous.

© James Casebere/Sean Kelly Gallery, “Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #8”

Using cardboard, paint and Styrofoam, photographer James Casebere created miniature versions of suburban neighborhoods as part of a series he began in the midst of the mortgage crisis. Two photos by Lori Nix, showing interiors after an apocalypse, are displayed along with the two detailed models she photographed.

Other photographers featured in the exhibition include Paolo Ventura, Didier Massard, Matthew Albanese, Michael Paul Smith, Oliver Boberg and the duo of Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz.

“Otherworldly” runs through September 18. For exhibit information, visit www.madmuseum.org.