Butterfly fine art prints

In this series, Alexander James Hamilton explores butterflies as symbols of transformation, impermanence and mortality. Referencing traditions in which the butterfly is associated with the soul and the passage between states, the works examine fragility, transience and renewal through analogue photographic process.

The butterflies are bred within the studio across multiple generations before being photographed underwater using large format analogue techniques without digital manipulation. Light, water and surface tension interact directly within the frame, producing painterly distortions and optical instability as physical conditions rather than post-produced effects.

Throughout the series, water operates simultaneously as material and metaphor — preserving, distorting and dissolving form. The resulting works exist between still life, vanitas and contemporary photographic abstraction.