London-based photographer Tom Hunter is best known for his documentation of ordinary life and his touching portrayals of common people. RuGuru recently paired a collection of individual photos taken from several of Hunter’s series with the famous masterpieces from which they borrow their form. While Hunter’s photographs are far from faithful reconstructions of paintings, they each definitely reinvent the classic gestures and symbols in poignantly contemporary settings. His most famous work, Woman Reading a Possession Order, for example, plays with the sense of domesticity found in Vermeer’s original by photographing a squatter and her child. The connection between titles, the symmetry of the forms, the photographic medium, and the elements Hunter decides to include or exclude all contribute to some brilliantly relevant takes on classic artwork. Take a look at some of his greatest reinterpretations below.
Woman Reading Possession Order by Tom Hunter
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer
Anchor and Hope by Tom Hunter
Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth
The Way Home by Tom Hunter
Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais
Death of Cotelli by Tom Hunter
Death of Sardanapalis by Eugène Delacroix
Death of the Party by Tom Hunter
Death of the Virgin by Michelangelo Caravaggio
Ye Olde Axe by Tom Hunter
Venus at Her Mirror by Diego Velázquez
Murder, Two Men Wanted by Tom Hunter
The Death of Procris, a Satyr Mourning Over a Nymph by Piero di Cosimo
Living in Hell by Tom Hunter
Four Figures at a Table by Le Nain Brothers
Reservoir No. 1 by Tom Hunter
Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse
Hide and Seek by Tom Hunter
Roger Delivering Angelica by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres