Steampunk Journal - The best steampunk news, reviews, articles and guides
Well known steampunk photographer Ruud DeKorte has announced the completion of his documentary. Airship The Aviator: A Steampunk Documentary follows the travels of Airship The Aviator throughout a year of its life. Ruud spent the entire year with the crew of the airship as they visited various events throughout the area.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with airships, they’re a group of friends who travel to steampunk or fantasy events for a steampunk presence. In this case it was at popular Dutch festivals such as Castlefest. Ruud is arguably more well known (in Britain particularly) for his work with Airship The Peregrine, featuring renowned steampunk/dieselpunk model Constance Bashford*. However, The Aviator has many wonderful members that change all the time; meaning that seeing them at different times of the year – or at different locations – will provide a different experience each time.
Ruud was inspired to showcase what goes on in an Airship and to document the work and solid friendships that go into preparing for a festival. Many of the photographs show wonderful snippets of behind the scenes moments. As visitors to the festivals we simply don’t get to see these slices of time.
Aviator: A documentary
I found it interesting that despite common sense dictating that these are normal people; that didn’t prevent a slight hint of disappointment to not see them turn up in full steampunk costumes. We get to see the unloading of furniture and costumes as they arrive as well as the construction of tents. Interestingly, one of my favourite pictures in the set is of the furniture under plastic coverings when it rains.
Ruud is a stunning photographer and his photographs are well composed, technically precise and thoughtful. From the fun images of the Captain riding a Penny Farthing to the still life of books falling from a vintage suitcase, the series of images are a delight to look. They also provide a fascinating insight into the preparation of a steampunk contingent at a festival.
The documentary is live and ready to watch at 8pm (GMT) on Ruud’s website here: Aviator steampunk documentary
Follow Ruud’s Facebook page for other cool stuff: Space machine Imagery.
*Keep an eye out for a cameo of Constance in the documentary.
The post Photographer documents steampunk appeared first on Steampunk Journal.