Original Photograph: “Woman” 1971 by Akira Sato ©Eleanor Macnair
Eleanor Macnair doesn’t sleep well. However, her loss of sleep is definitely our gain. She got the idea to amuse herself in the wee hours by reproducing other photographers’ work in Play-Doh. She took pictures of each of her Play-Doh sculptures and put them up on Tumblr and Instagram, thinking they would only ever entertain herself, her friends, and her few followers. But the idea caught the attention of art lovers and galleries alike. Now, she’s published one book of photos with another in the works, and her work is blowing up social media. I recommend you check out her very entertaining Instagram and Tumblr accounts. Her Instagram account also includes photos of some of her works in progress, which I found particularly intriguing.
Her process sounds deceptively simple:
“The images are produced late at night using Play-Doh, a chopping board, a highball glass as a rolling pin and a blunt Ikea knife. Each photograph takes 1-2 hours to reproduce, paring the image down to just form and colour, before being shot the next morning then disassembled back into the Play-Doh pots. The works themselves no longer exist and the Play-Doh is reused for future renderings, so these photographs are all that remain.” –Photography Now
I was initially kind of bummed that the sculptures are destroyed after they’ve been photographed, but I guess it makes sense. Play-Doh isn’t meant to last forever. And maybe the ephemeral quality of the work adds to its mystery. Enjoy!
Original Photograph: “Doe Eye” from Vogue, 1950 by Erwin Blumenfeld ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Hurt” 1972 by Joseph Szabo ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne 1931 by August Sander ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Untitled by Jean-Francois Lepage ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Boxers” 1929 by August Sander ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Helen Tamiris by Soichi Sunami ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Untitled Polaroid by Sibylle Bergeman ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Tatiana Ryabushinskaya as Golden Cockerel” Ballet Russes, 1938 by Horst P. Horst ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “New York” 1970s by Helen Levitt ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Girl holding kitten” London 1960 by Bruce Davidson ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Audrey With Toes and Wrist Bent” 2011 by Nadav Kander ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Untitled from the series ’Another November’ by Laura Stevens ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Woman and Man Dancing” New York, 1940s by Weegee ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Unidentified woman by Rufus W.Holsinger ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Vivienne in the green dress” NYC, 1980 by Nan Goldin ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “The Right Eye of My Daughter Sigrid” 1928 by August Sander ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Untitled from the series ‘On a Good Day’ 1975 by Al Vandenberg ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: “Melissa” Athens, Georgia, 1995 by Mark Steinmetz ©Eleanor Macnair
Original Photograph: Untitled, Biloxi, Mississippi, 1972 by William Eggleston ©Eleanor Macnair
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October 6, 2015 at 8:05 am
These are cute. They would look great in the video to some pop song or something like that, I think.
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October 6, 2015 at 8:47 am
That’s a great idea! Stop-motion animation would be really cool.
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October 6, 2015 at 9:04 am
Yes, I think so. 🙂
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October 6, 2015 at 10:00 am
What cool ideas from a cool medium. It must be amazing to catch a lovelorn look in clay.
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October 6, 2015 at 10:48 am
Not something I ever thought I’d see in Play-Doh!
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October 6, 2015 at 1:45 pm
True….but wasn’t Peter Gabriel’s sledgehammer video similar–not nearly as good quality depictions, but play doh nonetheless.
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October 6, 2015 at 4:09 pm
Hmm. I think you’re thinking of “Big Time.” It used claymation for sure, but I don’t think I ever heard anyone say it was Play-Doh.
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October 6, 2015 at 6:48 pm
What am I going to do….my memory seems to be going. It probably wasn’t Play -Doh, but you never know.
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October 6, 2015 at 11:05 am
How very clever..
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October 6, 2015 at 12:22 pm
They really are. And I love the idea that they’re created late at night. Being a night owl myself, that really adds something for me.
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October 6, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Yes, I can understand that 🙂
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October 6, 2015 at 12:23 pm
These are fantastic! As someone who has made and guddled with a heck of a lot of playdough over the years, I am impressed with her skill in sculpting it into something aesthetically pleasing and so dimensional. I suspect she would freak out if she met my kids: they take the individual colours of playdough and squidge it up into one big dun coloured blob. Not much inspiration to be found in balls of poopy coloured playdough.
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October 6, 2015 at 2:41 pm
My brother used to do that, but I used to spend half an hour picking out the wrong-colored bits and putting them in the right containers. I loved my Play-Doh!
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October 6, 2015 at 3:01 pm
I was like that as a kid and started out that way as a parent but there’s only so much unpicking one can do before feeling sanity slip. I had to let that battle go to the Rebels.
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October 6, 2015 at 4:10 pm
I spent some time in both camps. Now I’d say I’m split down the middle.
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October 6, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Well. This brings Play Doh to a whole another level. The eyes are amazing in some of these creations. I can’t even make a ball out of clay.
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October 6, 2015 at 2:42 pm
Oh, dear. Well, I’m sure you have other talents not involving balls. Hmm. That doesn’t look right at all . . .
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October 6, 2015 at 3:59 pm
LOL. Love your comment.
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October 6, 2015 at 4:10 pm
October 6, 2015 at 4:42 pm
This is awesome work you caught onto, Donna. Yes, all I could get out of Play-Doh was murky one-color lumps. But that was a long time ago, and I was just a kid …
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October 6, 2015 at 6:06 pm
This makes me want to go buy some and give it another try!
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October 6, 2015 at 7:02 pm
Yes, agreed, Donna. But I won’t taste it this time. Yucko!
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October 6, 2015 at 7:08 pm
I remember that taste, too. Funny!
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October 7, 2015 at 6:07 am
Many of the photos she has reproduced would have been originally in black and white, including the classic one on the front of her Tumblr page. So when she mentions form (3 dimensions) and colour, those are definitely her artistic additions. The boxers are my favourite.
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October 7, 2015 at 9:01 am
It hadn’t occurred to me that they might be B&W, but that is really interesting. I wanted to go looking for the photos so I could post them together with their reproductions, but I ran out of time.
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