Tag: photography

Evan Butterfield Photography

On By The LibrarianIn Artists/MusiciansLeave a comment

Evan Butterfield is a photographer based out of California. His work covers a wide array of topics, but lately he’s found he has an exceptional eye for steampunk.

"Your Hair Wants Cutting" c2014
“Your Hair Wants Cutting” c2014

Starting with custom created costumes and accessories with models enthusiastic about dress-up, Mr. Butterfield’s finished pieces encompass the best of traditional and digital photography. The images begin as detail-oriented traditional photographs that are then digitally manipulated to create a unique, antiqued look. Many images are faded, other crinkled, and some so meticulously edited that they look like they were lost in a drawer for generations.

Originally trained in English and a holding a degree in Law, Mr. Butterfields’s inspiration comes from his passion for literature and the steampunk butterfly affect: the notion that things are so dramatically altered by one small technological change. He credits The Difference Engine and The Diamond Age as his gateway and various conventions as his visual inspiration. In all of his steampunk works, he represents what he calls the “triple goddesses” of this particular SciFi aesthetic: Curiosity, Progress, and Science.

“It all comes down to the stories being told,” he said during our lovely phone conversation, “re-imagined into photo reality”. This reimaging comes in a variety of formats, from his series of literary themed pictures to turning Victorian sexism on its head through a series of “Steampunk Beefcake” shoots.

Steampunk Vincent c2014
Steampunk Vincent c2014

Even though his art is labeled SciFi, Evan Butterfield has a much more down to Earth feeling about the genre. “Despite all the gears steampunk is not divorced from reality,” he says, “its just playing with themes that have always been there – using them to connect.” This enthusiasm and social understanding of the esthetic come through with every image, and I personally cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.

 

Beauty and the Beast c2014
Beauty and the Beast c2014

Evan’s work is available for license or purchase via his online gallery,  or at FineArt America.

Read more about his process and stay up to date on projects by following his blog, Lens Caps.

Jeremiah Congleve, Reflecting An informal portrait of young Master Jeremiah Congleve, Tertiary Journeyman at the Royal Aetheric Engineering Academy. In later life, Congreve’s work with filamental liquid phenomena would revolutionize phlebotic medicine, military strategy, and commercial air transport; but during his student and journeyman years he struggled with personal demons (of the psychological, rather than phantasmal variety), inappropriate social behaviours, and, as has been previously suggested, rare varieties of addiction. That he overcame these obstacles to become one of the first non-nobles to ascend to the Board of the Imperial College speaks volumes both for his manly character and, of course, for the class-blind and deeply democratic principles that have always been at the very core of the Royal Scientific order, if not always visible on its surface.
Jeremiah Congleve, Reflecting
An informal portrait of young Master Jeremiah Congleve, Tertiary Journeyman at the Royal Aetheric Engineering Academy. In later life, Congreve’s work with filamental liquid phenomena would revolutionize phlebotic medicine, military strategy, and commercial air transport; but during his student and journeyman years he struggled with personal demons (of the psychological, rather than phantasmal variety), inappropriate social behaviours, and, as has been previously suggested, rare varieties of addiction. That he overcame these obstacles to become one of the first non-nobles to ascend to the Board of the Imperial College speaks volumes both for his manly character and, of course, for the class-blind and deeply democratic principles that have always been at the very core of the Royal Scientific order, if not always visible on its surface.