Cullen Butters, 'Elwyn'
50.8 x 40.8 cm 
Archival Inkjet Print on Platine Fibre Rag
Edition 1/1 +1AP 
$400
 
It felt like we had both grown so much since we last made photos together. Although four years had passed since I was in Elwyn’s backyard in the morning light, our reconnection was seamless and effortless. Elwyn moved with the dappled light coming through the gums. I learnt that they had left Nipaluna/Hobart not by choice but by the pull of family and grief. We had only a few hours together and in that intense time Elwyn’s diaphragm set a tone of meditation and solitude in front and behind the camera. 
 
'A flock of Cameras pecking my nostalgia. 
My lipstick said “I’m attending a funeral of memories” 
My effigy said “Pose somewhere between a tremble and a breath” 
Between the glass mountains and the sea breeze 
Somewhere that loosens this kite 
Into the storm of nostalgia. 
 
Nostalgia can feel so militant. So much so that we can mistake a dictatorship for reminiscence. This could even be it. But let's focus on this place, Knocklofty. I say this because for you it was the first time you have been here and already I sensed a nostalgia of loss. Of knowing something was under your nose the whole time that you could almost feel it, do you?' 
-Elwyn, 2025 
 
 
Cullen Butters is an emerging visual artist based in Nipaluna/Hobart. Their image-based practice employs medium and large format analogue photography, drawing on archival, documentary, and forensic processes to examine soft collisions and tensions between the environment and the people who shaped by it. Working primarily in remote and rural regions of Lutruwita/Tasmania, Butters develops long-term projects that consider narratives of place, history, and transformation. Butters’ work is informed by family encounters and speculates fictional connections alongside so-called truth in image making. 
 
His ongoing analogue practice explores the sensitivity of silver gelatin prints and the weight of time when working with negatives and large cameras. Particularly through light, shadow, and the eerie qualities the medium makes possible, themes of isolation, absence and dis/connection are a current running through their work. Creating connections with the people he photographs, sharing experiences and ensuring there is a transaction that supersedes inherent power dynamics in the act of photographing. 
 
In 2024, Butters presented Within the Reeds, their first solo exhibition which was shown at Good Grief Studios in Nipaluna/Hobart. Developed through several years of fieldwork across hydro-industrial sites in Lutruwita, the project brought together large-format photographs addressing environmental tension, colonial legacy, and familial narrative. This work was later shown as a part of the Ballarat GradFoto online exhibition and internationally at Still Gallery, Edinburgh. 
 
Alongside his studio practice, Butters works within educational and collaborative contexts. As current Director of the Analogue Photographic Society at the University of Tasmania, he has facilitated workshops, organised group exhibitions, and contributed to the growth of a community of emerging artists. He is also a current Board Member of Constance ARI that is based in Nipaluna/Hobart. In 2024, Butters received the NAVA Ignition Prize.