Fey Character Portraits from the Gala of Everlasting Change, Part 4

October 24, 2022
2 mins read

This week, we conclude our review of portraits from The Gala of Everlasting Change live action role-play event held in early September, 2022. The session was shot onsite at the event in a small bunkhouse on a campground. The details of the event and the photography setup are summed up in part one, but here’s a brief refresher:

The Gala of Everlasting Change was a live action role-playing game event created by Nathan Pease that occurred in Yorkville, Illinois, on September 10–11, 2022. In this event, the fey/faerie courts of autumn, winter, spring, and summer met to engage in politics and tricks and decide who will rule their various courts. The participants play various members of these faerie courts over the course of an afternoon and into the evening, interacting with one another and engaging in meaningful moments of role-play as these characters.

Distant Era photographed portraits for the gala in fifteen-minute mini sessions. Anyone who wished could be photographed and could purchase their portraits after the gala if they wished. These portraits were commissioned by the subjects as their selections from the session.

In our first post, we saw the Harrowhawk the leshy and Eirwin Mirafiel, fey from the courts of autumn and winter respectively. In our second post, we showed a second portrait commission of Brie’s character Eirwin, as well as Gwanwyn, a fey of the spring court created by Coco, and Cladhaire, a shining summer fey created by Meredith. In our third post, we revealed Raedrial’s mortal character Oriens, who infiltrated the fey court during the event.

This week we feature the final four client portraits from The Gala of Everlasting Change—two of Deana’s character Eira the winter fey, one of Jeff’s character Swarmingmist, a summer fey, and one of Tim’s character Corda Briste, who did not belong to a fey court.

The Portrait Patron

Some of this week’s portraits were funded by a patron who wished to generously donate a fund so that someone who would not be able to afford a portrait might have one. I deeply respect and admire this act of kindness and generosity, and I’m grateful to the patron who made it possible for me to do the work.

The Gallery of Everlasting Change

Here is the final gallery of commissioned portraits from The Gala of Everlasting Change. With one exception, these portraits were shot in fifteen-minute sessions back to back on the day of the event, without planning, makeup, or any amount of production. It took much longer to edit each of them into finished work than it did to photograph them, but that’s just how it is. Lots of improvising, figuring things out as we go. It helped to ask the players about their characters so as to get a feel for the mood of the portrait. If a player ordered multiple portraits, we tried to go for contrasting moods for the sake of variety.

And with that, editing on The Gala of Everlasting Change 2022 is complete. Thanks to all those who commissioned portraits so that this work might be done. It was an honor to make them for you!

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Steven Townshend is a fine art/portrait photographer and writer with a background in theatre, written narrative, and award-winning game design. As a young artist, Steven toured the US and Canada performing in Shakespeare companies while journaling their moments on paper and film. In his transition from stage to page, Steven continued to work as a theatre photographer, capturing dramatic scenes while incorporating elements of costume, makeup, and theatrical lighting in his work. Drawn to stories set in other times and places, Steven creates works through which fellow dreamers and time travelers might examine their own humanity or find familiar comfort in the reflections of the people and places of a distant era.

The All Worlds Traveller

Welcome to The All Worlds Traveller, an eclectic collection of thoughts, pictures, and stories from a Distant Era. Illustrated with Distant Era art and photographs, these pages explore the stories and worlds of people beyond the here and now, and the people and creative processes behind such stories. This is a blog about photography and narrative; history and myth; fantasy, science-fiction, and the weird; creation and experience. This is a blog about stories.

Steven Townshend

I’m Steven Townshend—your guide, scribe, editor, and humble narrator. The All Worlds Traveller is my personal publication, an exploratory conversation about stories and how we interact with them, from photographs to narratives to games—a kind of variety show in print. It is a conversation with other artists who explore the past, the future, and the fantastical in their work. Not one world—but all worlds. Where Distant Era shows stories in images, The All Worlds Traveller is all about the words.

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About a Distant Era

Distant Era creates fine art and portrait photographs of people and places from imagined pasts, possible futures, and magical realities. In collaboration with other artists, we evoke these distant eras with theatrical costume and makeup, evocative scenery, and deliberate lighting, and we enhance them with contemporary tools to cast these captured moments in the light of long ago or far away. We long to walk the lion-decorated streets of Babylon, to visit alien worlds aboard an interstellar vessel, and to observe the native dances of elves. Our images are windows to speculative realities and postcards from the past. They are consolation for fellow time travelers who long to look beyond the familiar scenery of the present and gaze upon the people and places of a distant era.

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