What a wonderful collection of creative interpretations our members have produced for our Recreating the Masters photography challenge!
We invited RPS Women in Photography members to take inspiration from a painting, sculpture or iconic work of art and recreate or reimagine it through photography.
From faithful recreations to imaginative contemporary interpretations, the submissions demonstrate the creativity and individuality of our members.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part!
Now it's your turn! Explore the gallery below and vote for the photograph that most captures your imagination. The image receiving the most votes will win a copy of An Equal Difference by Gabrielle Motola.
Voting is open to RPS Women in Photography members.
Good luck to everyone who entered, and thank you for helping us choose our winner!
Inspired by Pablo Picasso and Cubism, this work explores the face through fragmented features, geometric shapes and different viewpoints. I combined two photographic portraits with three of my own gel prints, layering colour, texture and imagery to create a fragmented portrait that brings photography and printmaking together.
This image of Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” was created by me back in 2008 when I was a student of photography. The brief we were given was very open so I decided to try something different and stretch myself. I really enjoyed every aspect of this creative process. Sourcing the material and costumes and dressing the set and of course helped along by my two classmates who allowed me to photograph them.
The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. Offline Marat reimagines Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat in the age of social media. The bathtub becomes a bed, the fatal letter a smartphone, and political assassination is replaced by emotional betrayal. The phone is both witness and weapon, exposing the fragility of trust in digitally mediated relationships. Rather than depicting violence, the work captures its aftermath, exploring loneliness, vulnerability, and the hidden emotional cost of living a life shaped by constant connection and public visibility.
Girl with Pomegranates, Reimagined (2026) Inspired by Laura Wheeler Waring’s Girl with Pomegranates (1938), this self-portrait celebrates the beauty, strength and importance of Black women in art. As part of Black History Month, I wanted to honour Waring, a talented African-American artist who helped bring more attention to Black people through her paintings. Nearly 90 years later, I recreated her artwork through photography, using myself as the subject. Through this piece, I celebrate her legacy and the Black women who came before me, while showing that Black women deserve to be seen, appreciated and celebrated.
It was early into lockdown 2020, Picasso's work has always been an influence on my creative journey. I've always loved this painting so I attempted something I hadn't done before, a self portrait in my dark blue bathroom then digitally painted on within Procreate. As an oil painter begore being a photographer it blended mediums I have always loved. It is an incredibly special and meaningful self portrait to me, please handle with care.
Mary Delany ( 1700-1788) was an artist who is known for creating outstandingly accurate botanical flower collages using small scrapes of coloured paper. Growing up in a society where women where expected to perfect domestic accomplishment such as sewing, needlework and paper cutting, She managed to bypass these male dominated structures in society entirely by transforming a traditional ‘female work’ into her signature ‘paper collages’ at the age of 72. She produced 985 pieces which are now preserved in the British Museum. In my ‘Christmas Rose’, I have put together a photographic collage by first disassembling the plant, photographing the many pieces, storing the data for a designated period, then re-opening the file and using my memory, re-assembling the many pieces to produce one final image. The final image consists of over 60 single images. She has been a great influence to me both as an artist and women.
Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring was part of my research into the painterly traditions of European portraiture while developing Who We Become. I was also researching African figures within European royal courts and considering whose image enters visual history. Rather than directly reproducing Vermeer, I drew upon this painterly language to photograph a contemporary Black woman on her own terms. Years later, I can see the visual echo more clearly: the gaze, headscarf, darkness and light transformed through a contemporary portrait.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Johannes Vermeer) My intention was not to recreate the original artwork literally or to reproduce it image for image. Instead, I wanted my self-portrait to evoke an association with this great work of art while remaining an independent creative piece in its own right. I was inspired by the iconic composition and atmosphere, but interpreted them through my own visual language and the concept of self-portraiture. For me, this recreation is a dialogue with the original rather than a copy of it.
Girl with a Pearl Earring - oil painting by Painter Johannes Vermeer. Such a wonderful masterpiece to replicate with a twist, by also including the frame in the recreation.
Mondrian Has Fallen draws inspiration from Piet Mondrian's pursuit of order, balance, and geometric harmony. Using my street photographs gathered from local places and spaces, I have reinterpreted his visual language by fragmenting and scattering its familiar structures across the deep black backdrop. Elements of colour, line, texture, and photographic detail break free from their original order, transforming stability into disruption. While the work celebrates Mondrian's lasting influence, it also challenges his pursuit of perfection by embracing chance, movement, and unpredictability. I like the new unbalance dimensions & deconstruction of his visual order.
Pronkstilleven, or ostentatious still life, was popular during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. Painted for Dutch and Flemish merchants to show off their wealth, Still Life with Lobster and Fruit, by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, is an outstanding example of the style and De Heem was one of the greatest painters of still lifes in the Netherlands. I sought to create a photographic image demonstrating both light painting and post-processing to produce a softer, painterly finish, not a faithful replica but an interpretation using flora available to me in Australia.
This artwork reimagines Salome with the Head of John the Baptist as an allegory for the postal strikes. Inspired by the dramatic style of the original, John the Baptist is portrayed as a union representative symbolising workers' concerns, solidarity, and opposition to changes many felt were harmful. Salome represents those promoting reforms and modernisation that were unpopular with parts of the workforce. The severed head serves as a metaphor for the silencing of dissenting voices. Strong contrasts of light and shadow emphasise conflict, sacrifice, and power, inviting reflection on the human impact of workplace disputes and contested change.
I have red hair so when I saw this challenge I knew I would look for inspirational art of women with red hair...turns out it is fairly easy to find beautiful art with ladies with red hair. I used a simple continuous light and used a hand held trigger. I believe I was successful in capturing the mysterious vibe and look staying true to the originals color and textural elements. I adore portraits.
I chose to reimagine myself as the woman in Tamara's Art Deco Portrait of Ira. I relate to and feel a strong connection to her of choice style, colors, elements and mood. I created a variation of these elements and made it my own. I believe I have been successful in capturing the vibe. A mirror was essential and a hand held trigger is nicely camouflaged by a flower stem in my left hand! :) I added a splash of grey paint. Love it!
I loved this challenge so much, I did it twice! I chose to reimagine myself as the woman in Tamara's Art Deco Portrait of Ira. I relate to and feel a strong connection to her of choice style, colors, elements and mood. I created a variation of these elements and made it my own. I believe I have been successful in capturing the vibe. A mirror was essential and a hand held trigger is nicely camouflaged by a flower stem in my left hand! :) I added a splash of grey paint. Love it!
I have been carefully watching the snails in my kitchen garden for many years, pondering how best to live with them. I believe Matisse also had a fascination depicting their movement in his iconic collage, The Snail. I was struck this year by the impact of soaring temperatures attributed to climate change on the snail community as I gathered all these empty shells at the end of the season. Many had hidden in previously dark damp places thinking they would be safe, but no.
Audrey Hepburn photographed by Bob Willoughby on the set of 'Green Mansions' (1959) I’ve had a copy of, ‘Audrey: An Intimate Collection’, for a long time and have spent hours pouring over the beautiful images. A few years ago, I realised one of my friends looks a bit like Audrey, so we got together with a mutual friend (an HMUA) and another (a dress designer) and collaborated on one of my favourite projects. An Audrey-inspired shoot to recreate some of her images and imagine some new ones. This was my favourite recreation.
Backs by Magdalena Abakanowicz's sculpture “A face can lie. A back cannot.” Backs reflects Abakanowicz’s fear of conformity born from oppression—her trauma of war and early communism in Poland. She was born in 1930, I was born in 1970. Seemingly different worlds, yet in the shadow of this artwork lies our shared fear of the mindless crowd: herd mentality. A table, old picture mounts, and natural light formed a vast gallery space. The organic texture was captured using wilting peppers bought on clearance. Repurposing waste is my typical approach: recycling the forgotten. This challenge sparked a whole series.
Unlike Abakanowicz’s famous human “Crowds” and “Backs”—which typically consist of repetitive, hollow shells facing a single direction—the creatures in the Mutants series are fully three-dimensional, solid forms. Turned towards one another, they suggest a vital need for closeness and coexistence within a herd. The artist believed animals possess an ancient knowledge of existence that human reason will never fully grasp. My materials: a white potato and windfall pears saved for stewed fruit.
“Embryology” explores the process of birth and growth—both in humans and in nature—as well as how the individual functions within a group. Here, as in the Mutants series, the forms are solid and soft. Abakanowicz herself spoke of this softness as an essential quality that fosters “a sense of closeness and connection with the world.” My materials: various potato varieties.
16th century portrait of Simon George of Cornwall. Modern England has changed enormously. It has become a deeply diverse and international society, where people of many different nationalities live side by side, communicate, share and respect each other’s cultures — and, of course, fall in love and marry. The original 16th-century portrait depicts the English nobleman Simon George of Cornwall. But how might Simon George look if he were living in England today, in a society shaped by so many different cultures and identities?
The the desperate man Gustave Courbet, taken in my studio
I though this might be fun and easy to recreate but I was wrong, took about 6 tries to work out how to do the snake hair .
Whistler's Mother. Lucky John is a meditation on time, loss, and absence, and a tribute to the women who cared for my father in his final years. Having lost his mother at birth, he carried that absence throughout his life. In the end, it seemed he was mothered again by a circle of strong, compassionate women who helped him bring his 95 years full circle. I made this photograph by placing myself in my father's chair, where he always sat. As I cared for him, our roles slowly reversed. By the end, I no longer felt simply like his daughter, but like a mother to him.
For my recreation of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, First of all, I purchased the vase from the NPG. I wanted to respond to the strong colour, texture and energy of the original painting rather than simply reproduce it exactly. I arranged the flowers to echo the fullness and slightly unruly character of Van Gogh’s composition, then worked with the image to emphasise the rich yellows, deep centres and painterly feel. It was interesting to take something so instantly recognisable and create my own photographic interpretation of it. As an aside, I had to stick to a recreation with flowers as I couldn’t find any willing sitters!
Dancing Ostriches from Disney's 'Fantasia', 1995. Paula Rego is one of the most important Portuguese artists and her work influenced vote on right to abortion in 2007.
If you’re already an RPS member, you can add Women in Photography as your specialist group — and if you’re not yet part of the RPS, perhaps now is the time to come and join us.
We’d love to welcome you.
JOIN THE RPS →Contact us, if you have any issues with submitting your work, voting or questions about the challenges, email Sue Wright wipchair@rps.org
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