The images in Whilst the World Sleeps were created late at night using Play-Doh, an empty wine bottle as rolling pin, a knife and a chopping board. Eleanor MacNair began her Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh project on an experimental whim in 2013 and has since amassed both a large audience and an archive of nearly four hundred recreated images. This book draws from the archive to construct an alternative photographic history told in just over fifty recreated images, many published here for the first time. Each model is made from off-the-shelf Play-Doh—the only colours MacNair mixes are the flesh tones, kept in an old Tupperware container—photographed in natural light in her bin yard, and then destroyed, the Play-Doh returned to its respective pot ready for the next model. The result is a humorous, deeply attentive entry point into the history of photography: an invitation to slow down and engage with often inaccessible works, and a sustained reflection on how we read and value imagery in a digital age in which we scan and move on from hundreds of pictures every day.