Mini-modern enthusiasts are usually quick to distance themselves from other adult dollhouse collectors, who have a reputation for being somewhat eccentric.

Annina Günther, a graphic designer in Brighton, England, said that when she first started her collection, she “worried about telling people, like they would look at me funny. But when they see it, they get it.”

Ms. Günther, 28, has four dollhouses, which she stages for photographs that she posts on her blog, Miniatures by Annina and on Flickr. The pictures are remarkably evocative and artistic: with rain boots and trash bags left by the door and notes taped to the mirror, the rooms have a lived-in quality and urban melancholy reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting.

“I am not creating dream places,” she said. “I want to show the reality, the grit and the mess of living in the city.”