These images were created late at night using Play-Doh, an empty wine bottle as rolling pin, a knife and a chopping board. The project started on a whim in 2013 and has since amassed an archive of nearly 400 recreated images presenting an alternative photographic history.
We all view hundreds of images each day—on screens, in newspapers, in adverts—but we scan them and move on. I began recreating photographs, both the familiar and the overlooked, in bright Play-Doh colours to encourage the viewer to slow down and engage with the original photographs. The project, shared first on tumblr then on Instagram, seeks to question how we read and value imagery in a digital age and creates a humorous entry point for the audience to encounter the often inaccessible worlds of art and photography.
The models are created in my spare time, often late at night, using off-the-shelf Play-Doh. The only colors I mix are the flesh tones which I keep in an old Tupperware container. Each model is then photographed in natural light in my yard, with many adjustments to get the angle and lighting just right. Finally, each model is destroyed and the Play-Doh returned to its respective pot ready for the next model.
I am interested in how we judge art. Who is to say what is good or bad? Who can make it, and how? Can we hold it in esteem if it’s not cloaked in art speak, the production costs are minimal, and the artist didn’t attend art school? Does this make it less valid? Or more so? Is it even art?
Artist Bios
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Eleanor Macnair
Eleanor Macnair (born Nottingham, UK) began Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh in August 2013 inspired by a pub quiz by artists MacDonaldStrand. The project was first published in book form in 2014 and soon after exhibited at Atlas Gallery, London; Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs, Wiesbaden; and Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles. In 2017, Macnair created a series of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery collections for a display in their bookshop gallery, London, and an exhibition Surrealists Rendered in Play-Doh was exhibited at Elephant West, London, in 2018, followed by three further exhibitions at Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs. In 2024, her work was included in the exhibition Home Sweet Home at Kunstforum Ingelheim and in the same year her second monograph Whilst the World Sleeps was published by RRB Photobooks. The project has been published in Observer Magazine, Telegraph Review, The Independent Magazine, Elephant Magazine, T magazine of the New York Times, BBC News, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Vogue Italia, Hyperallergic, IMA and AnOthermag.com, amongst others. Macnair is represented by Black Box Projects, London, and a solo exhibition of her work opened at Mai Mano House in Budapest in April 2025.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
Whilst the world sleeps
Featuring: Eleanor Macnair
Locations
View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
