fun with play-doh

Eleanor Macnair has been making Play-Doh pictures of some of her favorite photographs. Macnair is a press officer at the National Portrait Gallery. 

One of her creations happens to be inspired by of one of my all-time favorite photographs; above is her Play-Doh interpretation of Arbus’ "Boy with Toy Grenade.”

Macnair explains that each image takes around an hour to create and shoot. ‘I have six pots of Play-Doh which I create all of the photographs with, so this explains the limited colour palette’, she says.

‘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.’

Initially, she says, the pictures were created in the evening and left overnight before shooting in daylight, but they tended to dry up, so now the process is to take the photographs 'straight away.'

‘None of the copies exist anymore. They are all crumpled back up in their respective pots, waiting for the next time I have a spare hour.’”

- from BBC News in Pictures

Here are some more of Macnair's clever, albeit short-lived pieces. Can you guess these other famous photos by which she was inspired?