Pocket Snow Globe

The photograph has been commissioned as the interior of a modest souvenir snow globe. Inside the glass sits a painted plaster miniature of the child in their original pose and clothes, still recognisably them. The background of the photo is condensed into a tiny painted set behind the figure — the same place, reduced, not a generic winter village. Water fills the sphere. Silver glitter and a few air bubbles hang in suspension. The glass curves, throwing a sliding highlight, and a ghost of the room the globe sits in is reflected on the surface. The globe rests on a turned wooden base with a small brass plaque whose lettering is too small to read. Keep the child's proportions honest inside the miniature; do not turn them into a toddler scribble or a chibi charm. Do not replace the water globe with stacked paper, a dry toy-theatre box, or a Christmas-card illustration of snow.