Four years in the making, a dark, fantastical Dickensesque Steampunk story looks set to captivate readers through 150 stunning fine art images.

At almost 60 years old, Gary Nicholls is far from considering retirement.  He works as a Sustainability Consultant by day, and an artist by night (and weekends).  In 2012, Gary visited The Asylum, Europe's largest annual Steampunk festival, held in Lincoln, and inspiration struck.  The resulting project, 'The Imaginarium', is governed by two words... 'Imagine' and 'Create'.

Through 'The Imaginarium’, the British photographic conceptual artist tells a complex, dark and beautiful steampunk story through a series of 150 finely crafted photographic images.

Image from The Imaginarium, by Gary Nicholls

The first in the trilogy is entitled 'Eva's Story', and tells of a woman's journey from ruination to salvation. Created in a Dickens style and set in the Steampunk world of wickedness, betrayal and murder, one lost soul stands out as the protaganist's saviour.  Victoriana is the theme of this tale, but given Gary's inclusion of spellbinding time travel gadgetry, anything is possible.

In all, the story features 36 characters, none of whom are what they seem, and all of them have a dark past catching up with them. A secret in a box weaves its way through the entire trilogy.

Gary's artistic tool is his camera, which he uses to create multiple photographs, all reflecting the images he 'sees' in his mind, for building the layers of the sets in his story.  The photographs in the series were shot in New York City, Barcelona, London, Greece and Poland.

To ensure the quality and presentation of his images, Gary is self-publishing.  He explains; “This book has been a huge production with 36 characters and 65 extras. All are genuine steampunks! In order to self-publish, I need to generate the required funding.”

Image from The Imaginarium, by Gary Nicholls

He continues; “I’ll soon be launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise the publishing funds – and the rewards for helping to raise the funding are going to be quite something; works of art in themselves. For example, the first one thousand copies will be numbered and signed limited editions. There will be the opportunity to own one of 200 limited edition signed copies accompanied by two limited edition signed and certified 20” metal prints.”

Gary also gives a hint of what readers can expect from the project in the future; “...Remember, there’s two more volumes to come that will be equally as intricate and detailed. I’ve covered a lot of the planet in order to take images to inspire my creations - and each one can take up to eleven months to create. And here’s a little hint to the future – designed to fire up the imagination, think how amazing it was the first time you saw the epic battle scenes in Lord of the Rings. That awe-inspiring moment when the camera shows the sheer magnitude of people that go to battle in ancient times. Well, in the last book, I plan to photograph over 4,000 steampunks from all over the world and integrate them all together into one ground-breaking epic piece of art, reminiscent of that battle scene. I highly encourage anyone who is interested to back my project and help make it a reality!”

The Imaginarium’ is now on Kickstarter. For more information, visit Gary Nicholls Photography.