Eleanor Macnair: “Carving Contemporary Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh”

Eleanor Macnair's approach to her photographic process is playful and inquisitive. Taking both iconic and lesser-known photographs and reconstructing them out of Play-Doh, she pares the original images down to their most simple forms and colours. The act of studying and recreating these two-dimensional images into a colourful sculpture form out of Play-Doh allows the artist the opportunity to slow down the act of viewing and to really examine the image, a challenge she also sets for those viewers who encounter her work.

United Kingdom – 

This new publication, Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh, reproduces for the first time, Eleanor Macnair’s Play-Doh reproductions of photographs from the blog photographsrenderedinplaydoh. The photographs in the publication range from the well known and iconic, to lesser-known images by contemporary photographers. The project started on a whim following a photo pub quiz run by MacDonaldStrand, in Brighton, August 2013. One of the rounds was to make a reproduction of a famous photograph using Play-Doh. One year later and Macnair’s blog has been viewed by thousands of people across the world and has a following amongst professional photographers and curators.


Photographs rendered in Play-Doh, books                                                               Photography by Jana Romanov


The project has cost forty pounds to produce, including Play-Doh, chopping boards and a highball glass to use as a rolling pin. Each photograph took about an hour to create, shoot and then disassemble back into the Play-Doh pots. The works no longer exist and the green blanket from the Cartier-Bresson later became a snake in the Madame Yevonde, the bushes in the Becher, the hood in the Judy Joy Ross and the hosepipe in the Stephen Shore. ‘I have a simple, naïve love of photography and I hope this is reflected in this series. It’s my strange tribute to photography.’ The book is published as a collaboration between MacDonaldStrand and Photomonitor, and designed by The Entente. Five different ‘Play-Doh’ coloured covers are available.

Art & Culture

Related Posts

Deconstructing Communitas – Nabil Sabio Azadi

New Zealand – Emaho caught up with Iranian and inveterate traveller, Nabil Sabio Azadi to find out what his latest ...

Phillip K. Smith III: Lucid Stead

U.S.A – On the weekend of October 12th in Joshua Tree, California, artist Phillip K Smith III revealed his light ...

Madboy/Mink: ‘I-Mad’ and the Squirrel

India – Madboy/Mink, a duo with Imaad Shah and Saba Azad makes electronic music mashing up old school Funk and ...

Invisibility Cloaked – Liu Bolin

China- Can a person disappear in plain sight? That’s the question Liu Bolin’s works seem to ask.Also called as “The Invisible ...

The Mad Hatter – Philip Smiley

England- London based artist, Philip Smiley did his MA in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts, New York. ...

Ariana Page Russell: Beauty and Bruises

U.S.A- Our skin tells us stories about ourselves through each freckle, bruise and blush, which temporarily punctuates our flesh with ...

Shannon Galpin : Combating Apathy

Afghanistan – With a determination of taking a stand against a world where women are attacked and harassed, Shannon set ...

Diddo Velema : “I’m still enjoying my childhood!”

With over 15 years of experience as a designer, art director and conceptual artist, Diddo Velema’s achievement lies in breaking ...

Christine Maxfield: A Magnet for Hilarious Predicaments

U.S.A. – Christine Maxfield is an international travel writer and photojournalist who quit her job as a magazine editor in ...