Artist recreates famous photographs using Play-Doh

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posted Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 1:36 PM EDT

 
Eleanor Macnair, after Irving Penn

The Tumblr blog Photographs rendered in Play-Doh is a perfect example of a site that does exactly what it says on the tin. Creator Eleanor Macnair has taken famous photos by dozens of different artists, and rendered them out of one of our favorite childhood art materials. (Safe to say, our Play-Doh projects never looked like this!)

Talking to the BBC, Macnair explained that this blog spun out of a pub quiz where the teams had to recreate famous photos out of Play-Doh, and it grew from there. She told the BBC:

"It is honestly just a bit of fun and I wouldn't want anyone to take it seriously. I shared them with a small group of friends and it really just grew from there... My hope is that maybe it will introduce a new audience to some of my favourite photographs or re-introduce those who are already familiar with the works, so they start to really look at the photographs again, the content and the context."

The Play-Doh projects apparently take Macnair about an hour to put together, and she quickly photographs then before they're disassembled back into their original pots. Yes, it's a very silly art project. But it's also a lot of fun, and presents some classic photos in a very different way -- though we have to admit,we didn't always recognize them before clicking through to the original photographs.

Check out all of Macnair's famous photographs turned into Play-Doh here.

 
Eleanor Macnair, after August Sander
 
Eleanor Macnair, after Diane Arbus