Photographer Invites 16 Artists to Reimagine His Portraits in Their Own Style

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by naomoonz

Photographer Mathieu Stern creates striking, often surreal portraits using a variety of vintage lenses and digital techniques. With the spirit of experimentation in mind, he was inspired to collaborate with artists after browsing through images on Instagram posted under the hashtag #DrawThisInYourStyle. The popular art challenge encourages illustrators to recreate art in their own way, and Stern thought it would be interesting to see how artists would translate his photography into digital art.

“I decided to first contact an illustrator asking if they wanted to redraw one of my portraits in their own style,” Stern explains. “I told her that I would create a YouTube video about the process and create the first episode with a team of my favorite artists. She said yes and the result she sent me was so amazing that I started to contact every illustrator I liked on Instagram. One month later, I had 16 participants and I had a great looking video of their processes.”

Each artist was given a different portrait, created by Stern, that they could remake in their own style. As a result, the project shows a wide variety of aesthetics, interpretations, and creative approaches. While some artists produced illustrations very close to the original photograph, others let their imaginations run wild and added cartoon and anime influences to the model. Making this project even more compelling is the accompanying YouTube video that gives us a peek into the process these illustrators took to draw the portraits in their own way.

You can keep up to date with Stern's photography by following him on Instagram and subscribing to his YouTube channel.

Photographer Mathieu Stern asked 16 artists to recreate his Instagram portraits in their own style.

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Halil Şimşek

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Minipraw

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Lore

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Ali

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Loane

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Meybis Ruiz Cruz

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Marta García Navarro

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Gina Nguyen

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by E.M. Engel

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Li

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Sophal R. Lay

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Yilok Draws

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Sang Wook Kim

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Fahmi Fauzi

Portrait Project by Mathieu Stern

Left: Portrait by Mathieu Stern | Right: Art by Aly Tain

Watch this video for more insight into Stern's project:

Mathieu Stern: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Mathieu Stern.

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Margherita Cole

Margherita Cole is a Contributing Writer at My Modern Met and illustrator based in Southern California. She holds a BA in Art History with a minor in Studio Art from Wofford College, and an MA in Illustration: Authorial Practice from Falmouth University in the UK. She wrote and illustrated an instructional art book about how to draw cartoons titled 'Cartooning Made Easy: Circle, Triangle, Square' that was published by Walter Foster in 2022.
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