Kāpiti photographer recreates famous paintings in lockdown

Photographs taken by Fairlie Atkinson, recreating famous paintings in lockdown. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

What do the famous painting of Whistler's Mother and Netflix have to do with each other?

Kāpiti College school teacher and photographer Fairlie Atkinson has taken the Getty Museum photo challenge to the next level.

With museums around the world closing their doors, and no chance of seeing artworks in the flesh, Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California came up with a creative way to share art with the world while in lockdown which has since gone global.

Posting on twitter, the museum challenged people to recreate their favourite painting while in isolation with objects and people in their home.

The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

Seeing posts going around social media, Fairlie thought the attempts she had seen were very clever and decided to take it up a notch - using her photography skills to recreate the paintings for a lockdown project and adding her own social commentary to the situation.

Living in Paraparaumu, Fairlie and her partner have four children between them and also have two exchange students living with them during the school year.

"I talked to all the kids and teens at home, and said I wanted to do something similar during lockdown using only the things that we had on hand and also making a bit of a comment on some of the issues in lockdown with supply chains, panic buying and binge watching.

"It started out as my idea and turned into a collaborative project with the whole family."

Portrait of a Lady. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

Choosing images was important as Fairlie wanted to showcase how the world we live in now is not so different from times in the past where there was great societal disturbance with the exception of the advancement in technology that we now enjoy.

"I wanted images from eras so fundamentally different from the one we live in now but also that shared instances of great societal upheaval such as plagues and wars.

"What we are experiencing now is unprecedented in our lifetimes in New Zealand.

"How we have handled it was something I wanted to capture, just as the paintings capture those things from the eras they were painted in."

Self-portrait at the easel. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

Images include the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer which has been recreated to include a facemask, now a regular sight in today's society.

Self-portrait at the easel, a self-portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola has been recreated to includes a picture of a Covid-19 graphic on the easel rather than the famous devotional pannel depiction of the Virgin Mary and Jesus as a child.

Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, better known as Whistler's Mother by James McNeill Whistler has been recreated with Netflix featuring as the background image on the wall.

Whistler's Mother. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

Adding to the commentary is the fact that many believe Whistler's mother who lived with Whistler at the time was filling in for a model who couldn't make it, reflecting our current situation where Fairlie had to use only the people in her household as models.

Toilet paper and flour feature heavily in Fairlies recreations along with techology.

"I tried to pick things I thought would lend themselves to social commentary but be also easily recognisable.

"It wasn't easy and I tried a number that were not as successful as I had hoped so I discarded them."

Portrait of Jorge Manuel Theotocopuli. Photo / Fairlie Atkinson

With both herself and her partner working fulltime as teachers and finding online learning is taking up more hours than face to face instruction, Fairlie had to manage her time well in order to complete this project.

"I've done 15 images over the last three weeks and am just finishing off the last five.

"I hope to have 20 done by the end of it, all shot during lockdown.

"I feel though that if I do it outside of lockdown the impetus and purpose for it will be lost."

To see more of Fairlie's recreations visit her website here.