The Demon Queen

August 23, 2021
2 mins read

“The Placid Fury, Mistress of the Beasts, cold as snowy mountain’s mantle…”

When actor and model Sara Robinson walked into the room in the fur mantle and horns, the long gray hair, the steel gray eyes, and the skeleton beast riding on her shoulder, those present were more than a little spellbound. Here was a character with a sense of command, of majesty and power and magic, perfect for the series we were creating on that day.

Sara created this character as a kind of demonic necromancer with the power to control all manner of beasts, alive or dead. Most of the portraits of the series have warm, earthy tones and warm light. Sara’s look was mostly comprised of neutral colors, however, so warming those up made everything too ruddy. The fur mantle and horns make me think of big, granite mountains and the fantastic creatures that live in them—trolls or dragons, perhaps, or demonic creatures of a distant age dwelling deep beneath the roots of stone, and this character the queen of such beings. So I moved away from the warm tones of the rest of the series and went in the opposite direction with this portrait, cooling it down and emphasizing the grays, desaturating the reds. I remember lighting this particular image with a beauty dish with a grid attached, which I placed camera right and directed Sara to look up into that light. 

Sara and I have done so many projects together over the years that I’ve lost count. From theatre to experimental costumed shoots, we’ve shot it all. That’s because Sara is a wonderful subject to work with. She comes up with cool and interesting character concepts, puts together awesome costumes for them, and she shows up with great ideas while collaborating effortlessly with direction. It’s no wonder we’ve done so many projects together. Here is a small selection of those many looks.

Sara has also created a brand called Broader Horizons, which showcases her modeling work. She says: 

Broader Horizons was started as my cosplay/ LARP persona. I wanted it to have a body positive message while also being able to promote upcoming projects. Moving forward the focus is going to be one of inclusivity and loving oneself. The pandemic has really taken a number on all of us in different ways both mentally and physically and I believe the next Era of the LARP and cosplay world’s needs to be one of compassion for ourselves and one another.

Sara Robinson

There was mercifully little to adjust when fixing some of my initial editing mistakes from 2019, just a few darker areas that needed a boost and very little difference between the two versions.

Sara would next appear in the Hauntings from a Distant Era series that followed this one and will be appearing again in an upcoming Distant Era series in early 2022 featuring a character and culture she has shaped. Here’s a sneak peek at that world…

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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.

  1. Practicing Patience with Personal Projects
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  4. Alone at Last, with Laughing Stock

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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