Eerie Portraits Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch Paintings

California-based shutterbug Lori Pond loved the bizarre works of Dutch Renaissance master Hieronymus Bosch so much that she based an entire photography series around three of his paintings. Bosch Redux pays homage to surrealist details found in The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Temptation of St. Anthony, and The Last Judgment. 

Pond first became inspired by Bosch’s unique aesthetic after she saw The Garden of Earthly Delights at Madrid’s Prado Museum. That fascination led her to later purchase an art book by German art-book publisher Taschen that contained reproductions of the artist's complete catalogue. With his entire work on hand, Pond became riveted by the tiny, fantastical figures she noticed lurking in some of the paintings' backgrounds and decided to recreate them as portraits starring real-life subjects. She transformed ordinary models into Bosch's grotesque and ethereal characters using facial prosthetics, thrift store finds, discarded Halloween costumes, and props from a taxidermist.

Most of the works were created using a camera, Pond told Create, although she used Photoshop and other software for "exceptions when I didn’t want to string up a woman in a harp or couldn’t find ears or birds bigger than a human.” Check out some of Pond's otherworldly works below, or visit her website, Twitter, or Instagram for more information.

All photographs courtesy of Lori Pond.