Gala of Everlasting Change Portraits: Aelic

November 13, 2023
1 min read

In late September, Distant Era returned to the Gala of Everlasting Change one-night live action role-play event in Yorkville, Illinois. The previous year, we made a variety of character portraits at the gala, so it was awesome to return for a followup.

Our first portrait is Aelic, a pixie character designed by Kara Larsen. In Kara’s words:

Aelic is a little rat. Think Starscream but tuned down. Mischievous, greedy, rude, and arrogant. Doesn’t know how to handle good emotions.

Kara Larsen

From Maxine to Aelic

Kara and I met during the first Auxientia steampunk game. Outside of my design (and photographer) roles, I filled in as various nonplayer characters as needed. One of those was a defeated, vengeful marauder who refused to communicate with domineering outspoken characters but let his guard down to the gentle healer Maxine Vyer—played by Kara—who helped him back to health. That was the most significant moment of the story I took part in, and I really enjoyed playing the scene with Kara. Thus, I was super happy when Kara commissioned a portrait for the 2023 gala. We’d already connected via meaningful scenework, so doing a mini session was familiar and easy.

Kara’s fey character is worlds apart from that good and gentle healer. Brimming with chaotic energy and practically glowing with mischief, Aelic just might be up to no good.

Photography

I photograph all the gala portraits in the hallway of a bunkhouse at a campground. The rafters are low, and there’s limited space. The wide-angle iPhone picture somewhat communicates what the space is like, but the wide angle makes it look like there’s more space than there really is. Note the small background that reaches to the rafters. Also, check out the umbrella making contact with the fan.

It’s a tiny space for photography, but within the magic of the frame, we can imagine the characters in a more spacious environment.

For 2023, I brought the old MagMod softbox I’ve rediscovered, and a big umbrella for fill. Between The Duchess of Malfi, Gen Con workshops, and the gala, I’ve found a new love for that small softbox. I’ve even been using it for event photography.

Here’s Aelic in full fey grandeur, ready to get into trouble.

It was wonderful making art with Kara once again, and I’m so happy we had the opportunity to make Aelic’s portrait together for the Gala of Everlasting Change 2023!

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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.

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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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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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