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.
The images in Whilst the world sleeps were created late at night using Play-Doh, an empty wine bottle as a rolling pin, a knife, and a chopping board—they present an alternative and accessible photographic history.
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