Photographer Freddy Fabris has paid homage to the great Renaissance master painters using his camera instead of a brush. This unique tribute–aptly called The Renaissance Series–fuses contemporary culture with the dramatic styling of the original portraits. The atypical subjects of the photographer’s tribute? They happen to be mechanics in a car repair shop who strike similar poses to their old world counterparts. Thanks to these updated characters, Fabris has created an intriguing project that feels fresh, while at the same time, classic.
For Fabris, translating the paintings into photographs was a welcome challenge. “I wanted to respect the look and feel of the originals, but needed to come up with a conceptual twist that would create a new layer to the original,” he wrote on Huffington Post. “By chance I came across an old Midwest car shop that triggered this series, the place screamed for something to be shot there, and slowly but steadily ideas started to fall into place.” Fabris was successful in his transformation–although the mechanics represent a completely different time period, we instantly recognize their artistic influence.
Fabris selected a few famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt to recreate for this project. He later expanded the series with Rembrandt-inspired portraits of the individual technicians.
Above: The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
The Anatomy Lesson by Rembrandt
The Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo
Freddy Fabris: