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23 April 2026Silk, Brass and Corsets
Photographer Gary Nicholls has found inspiration for his latest project in Steampunk – a movement that combines Victoriana, Gothic and the limits of imagination
I
t is hard to pass one of photographer Gary Nicholls’ creations without stopping and staring; letting your eyes roam across the detail and complexity of a world where bodies seem to have morphed into machines and where the dreams of a Victorian opium smoker appear to be coming to life.
Photographer Gary Nicholls has found inspiration for his latest project in Steampunk – a movement that combines Victoriana, Gothic and the limits of imagination
I t is hard to pass one of photographer Gary Nicholls’ creations without stopping and staring; letting your eyes roam across the detail and complexity of a world where bodies seem to have morphed into machines and where the dreams of a Victorian opium smoker appear to be coming to life.
Much in evidence are bodices, top and bowler hats, ruffled shirts and brass-rimmed goggles, while backdrops merge the natural and fantastical. This is a glimpse into the world of Steampunk – a combination of Wild West fashion, Victorian inventiveness and a liberal sprinkling of the Gothic.
Nicholls says his interest in the genre was first sparked on a car journey when his mind wandered onto ways of creating an image. ‘I was listening to the Sting song When We Dance Angels Will Run and Hide Their Wings. For a number of years I’d been looking for a theme for a project. I had an idea of a ballroom dance and angels running and hiding,’ he says.
‘I began thinking about Steampunk films such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Hellboy and I thought there must be people who dress like that for real who I could feature in a photograph.’
Looking for ways to bring his idea to life, Nicholls visited a Steampunk convention at Lincoln. It proved to be an eye-opening experience in many ways and a few months later he completed a photo shoot featuring six of the people he had met at the event in all their quasi 19th-century glory.
‘The idea for a story formed from there,’ he adds. ‘I had a thought that was very Dickensian in its content. There is pretty much every type of villain in Charles Dickens’ novels; there’s murder, there’s prostitution and wicked people meet their comeuppance. What I like about Dickens is that it’s not pretty.’
With that in mind he wrote a script entitled The Imaginarium that would form the basis of a story that would be told through the medium of photography and would in due course become a fine art exhibition and a book comprising 100-150 carefully conceived images.
There is pretty much every type of villain in Charles Dickens’ novels, there’s murder, there’s prostitution and wicked people meet their comeuppance
At the centre of proceedings is Eva Elizabeth Lovelace, a young lady who has the misfortune to grow up in a workhouse before being sold into prostitution, all the while coming into contact with a cast of aristocratic rotters, female enforcers and eccentric characters of every hue.
Salvation is on hand, however, in the form of inventor, philanthropist and all-round good egg Dr William Percival Stockdale, a hero of whom Dickens himself may well have approved and a man who – after a hard day spent coming up with bizarre contraptions – turns his night-time attentions to roaming the streets looking for unfortunates to save from their unwholesome circumstances.
And that’s not all. As with all the best 19th-century literature, there is a twist or two in the tale. In the case of The Imaginarium – and not wishing to give away the entire story – it concerns the reappearance of one of Eva’s long-lost relatives, an unexpected inheritance and a denouement featuring a cast of thousands.
‘In the end there is a battle scene, the inspiration for which came from the concluding scenes of The Lord of The Rings trilogy,’ adds Nicholls. And there is no shortage of volunteers willing to take part.
‘The UK has around 25 Steampunk associations, but when I created a Facebook page about the project I found interest from a wide range of countries; the US, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Japan. The New Zealand Steampunk association has already gone to its country’s Arts Council for funding to take part in the project.
Even Nicholls has been surprised by the extent of interest in his work and how it seems to have hit a chord with people across the world.
‘Everyone involved in the book is a genuine Steampunk and their characters wear all the accoutrements such as goggles, eye pieces, corsets – it’s about a vision of Victorian dress down to the last detail.’
‘When I went to that first convention in Lincoln I felt as though I’d walked into the biggest fancy dress party in history. What I realised was that these people live it. Everyone involved in the book is a genuine Steampunk and their characters wear all the accoutrements such as goggles, eye pieces, corsets – it’s about a vision of Victorian dress down to the last detail.’
Thanks to modern technology, Nicholls’ subjects do not even have to be in the same place at the same time to form part of a particular picture. As the photographer says: ‘I’m very fortunate that Photoshop allows me to create the images in the way I want,’ he says. ‘I conceptualise the photograph and then I think about how to take pictures to create that final image.’
This is probably a blessing in many ways, because Nicholls, at his own admission, is a perfectionist when it comes to his photography. ‘I can’t just make do,’ he says. ‘If I have a scene in mind then I have to find it.’
One particular image, for example features a group of trees that he discovered on day four of a five-day trip to the Lake District, in another the backdrop comprises the clock tower at Bradford Town Hall in Yorkshire – access proved tricky on the health and safety front, he adds, and involved hauling his camera equipment up nine flights of stairs.
‘This project has really captured my imagination,’ says Nicholls. ‘It’s the gadgets, it’s the sheer ingenuity of it all. The potential is enormous. For the final scene I’m talking to some Steampunks in the US who have three full-size airships they want to get involved. It’s astonishing.’
Words: DH
