Photographer recreates famous Gustav Klimt paintings with real-life models [NSFW]

It’s amazing when one art inspires another and how they can intertwine. Austrian photographer Inge Prader was inspired by a famous artist Gustav Klimt, and she created photos based on his paintings. Her inspiration was Klimt’s Golden Phase, and she used real-life models, costumes, and props to recreate his works.

Just like the originals painted between 1899 and 1910, Inge’s recreations are vivid, full of golden hues and sometimes erotic. She faithfully recreated the famous paintings, and yet – she gave the photos her own signature.

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. Many of his works are displayed in Vienna Secession gallery, and he created mainly paintings, sketches, and murals, but other art objects as well. He showed interest in art at an early age, but his most successful phase is the Golden Phase, which Inge Prader used as an inspiration for her project.

The photos were created as a part of Life Ball. It’s one of the biggest charity events in Vienna dedicated to fighting AIDS and celebrating life. Gery Keszler, the founder of Life Ball, explains the choice of the theme:

Breaking out of old ways and advancing one’s own individuality and self-determination; this was the core idea of the Viennese Secessionists. The values of the avant-garde movement thus form a wonderful metaphor for the Life Ball, which has fought from its inception both for active steps towards health and for a conscious confrontation with and the overcoming of social barriers, taboos and stigmas.

Both in this context and out of it, I’m enchanted by Inge Prader’s work, just like I am with Klimt’s. She gave new form to the famous paintings while preserving their mood. It’s a great example how a different type of art from a different period can inspire a contemporary photographer to create something wonderful.

 

 

If you’d like to see more of Inge Prader’s work, check out her website and Instagram. And to learn more about Life Ball, make sure to visit their website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel.