Timothy Archibald and his son, Elijah, have created a body of work that captures the unique interactions between the boy and the world at large.

Archibald told the New York Times Lens Blog that the portraiture sessions were brief, regularly scheduled and sparked by his son’s interest in something.

It was Eli’s idea to see if a very large manila envelope would fit over his head; Eli’s idea to blow into one end of a vacuum cleaner hose and hold the other end to his ear to hear the whoosh. It was Eli’s idea to see if he could curl up his body until it fit inside a clear plastic toy box, to flatten his features with a wide rubber band, to look through the wide end of a funnel that happened to be the same circumference as his face.

“He has always fetishized objects,” Archibald said. “They are iconic to him.”

The photographs are available in a limited-edition book of 43 images, “Echolilia,” which is available on Archibald’s website.

(via Loving Father Photographs Unique Habits of His Autistic Son – My Modern Met)