Gary Nicholls Imaginarium

Every piece here began as something that didn’t exist — a picture in my head I couldn’t point a camera at.

So I photograph the parts separately. A figure, a building, a sky, often years and continents apart. Then I spend weeks in Photoshop persuading them they belong in the same world, until the seams disappear and the scene simply looks like somewhere you could walk into.

Caravaggio understood that light is what tells the story, and Vermeer painted it as though it had weight. Both are in everything I make. The results tend dark, and towards fairy tale and steampunk — the places where the ordinary rules are already suspended.

More about the work

Limited edition books

The Imaginarium Trilogy

A Dickensian steampunk novel in three volumes, where every one of its 450-odd illustrations is a photograph I built from scratch. Serial murder, kidnapping, time travel, and a bordello with rather more going on than trade.

Each volume is numbered, signed and hologrammed, capped at 1,000 copies. Over 800 of Book One have gone and there will be no reprint. Buying Book One holds your number for Books Two and Three, so you end up with a matched set.

About the trilogy