The Birth of Elemental Editorial: Capturing Symbolism Through Fine-Art Photography
A Fine-Art Photography Style Rooted in Nature, meaning & Mythology
From my shoot Fading Fae
The birth of a new style
After eight years of photography, creative exploration, and the pursuit of artistic expression, I have begun to recognise a distinctive style emerging through my work. My intention with this article is to offer a contemplative re-enchantment; a reflection on creativity, nature, photography, and the winding path that led me here. If you're interested in creative portraiture fine-art photography, discovering your own artistic voice, or simply find yourself here, perhaps you'll find something meaningful within these words.
Allow me first to show you the first brushstroke. The striking of the muse.
When I was seventeen, after graduating high school in Saskatchewan, Canada, my family and I moved back to our hometown near Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. At the time, I was considering studying psychology at the University of Birmingham. With few friends, no Xbox, and no particular hobbies, I picked up my dad's digital camera simply as a way to get to know myself better.
One of my first photos in Lickey Hills, Birmingham
The image below was one of the first photographs I ever created.
My immediate instinct was to head to Lickey Hills Country Park with my camera. Looking back, this feels significant. Today, nature forms the foundation of my work as a creative photographer, but at the time I wasn't consciously aware of that connection. I simply felt drawn outdoors.
Photography taught me to slow down.
I began wandering off-trail through woodland paths, watching how light filtered through trees and how landscapes changed with the seasons. I was no longer simply looking at the world; I was paying attention to it. Seeing into things rather than just over them.
What started as curiosity soon evolved into a deep love for photography and visual storytelling. Whether photographing landscapes, creating self-portraits, or documenting friends in nature, I found a sense of freedom through the camera. Looking through the viewfinder brought me into a state of presence and had me thinking in ways unlike anything I had experienced before.
I considered studying photography professionally. Yet after researching tuition fees and camera equipment, I said to myself
"Why don't I spend that time and money teaching myself?"
That decision unknowingly set me on the path that would eventually lead me into editorial photography, creative portraiture, and the cinematic, nature-inspired style I continue to develop today. Without the boarders of formal education, I freely followed my heart into every curiosity. Without the guidance of a university network, I had to extract my own grit and determination to pave my own path.
Fast forward
One opportunity led to another, and a series of unlikely synchronicities carried me into the music industry. Working with musicians rapidly evolved my portrait photography. I began organising editorial shoots, developing creative concepts, refining my visual language, and exploring the intersection between storytelling, symbolism, and photography.
As my technical abilities grew, something deeper was unfolding beneath the surface.
Through creative exploration and relentless curiosity, I found myself questioning long-held assumptions about life, identity, meaning and self-perception. Looking back, the creative process itself became fertile ground for what many would describe as a spiritual awakening.
A series of experiences accelerated this transformation: the passing of my grandfather and a vivid dream that told me, encounters with individuals who revealed difficult truths, and moments of synchronicity so striking they challenged my understanding of coincidence. These experiences didn't provide answers.
Instead, they encouraged deeper questions. Questions that would eventually shape not only who I became as a person, but also the artistic philosophy behind my photography today. Because the more I explored creativity, nature, and consciousness, the more I realised that photography is not merely about documenting appearances. It is about revealing essence.
Revealing Essence?
The idea of revealing essence can sound vague, even mystical. I understand why.
Photography is often viewed as a medium for documenting what is physically present. A face. A landscape. A moment. Yet after years of creating images, I have become convinced that photographs can reveal something beyond appearance.
Whether I am documenting an intimate moment or directing a fine-art editorial, there is often a feeling present within the scene. A quality that cannot be measured, yet can be sensed. Some might call it atmosphere. Others might call it symbolism, emotion, energy, spirit, vibe or simply presence.
Whatever name we give it, I believe every person, place, and moment carries an essence. The more intuitive you are or emotionally "tapped in", you'll feel it. For me, it feels like I am picking up on a scent. I feel it in my body, in my senses and can tell by observing my mind and how it's being pulled.
You see, the more I developed as a photographer, the more I found myself unconsciously searching for that essence. Not simply documenting what something looked like, but attempting to create images that reflected what it felt like.
Perhaps it is best shown rather than explained.
I once had the profound honour of photographing an open-casket Indian funeral. It was a deeply moving experience.
Throughout the ceremony, there was a palpable sense of reverence surrounding the family matriarch. Looking back through the photographs, one image continues to stand out. A shaft of light reflects from a metal beam above below the lens and illuminates the casket below. It feels almost as though her spirit lingers within the frame itself.
Of course, I am not suggesting the photograph proves anything supernatural. Yet when I feel into this image, I am reminded of what I felt standing there. The photograph does not merely document the ceremony. It evokes the spirit of the moment.
There are many more images from that day that beautifully express the dignity and presence of this woman, but they keep those with the family.
Then there is Matreya.
I photographed Matreya throughout his From Darkness to Light UK tour.
From years of shooting Matreya's press shoots, artistic campaigns and content, I have noticed a recurring pattern. Time and again, light would appear above or around his head. Streetlights. Stage lights. Windows. Reflections.
Coincidence, perhaps.
Yet these visual motifs seemed to mirror the themes at the heart of his music; healing, transformation, illumination, and the journey from darkness towards light. His connection with a variety of spiritual traditions and his consistent embodiment carries through his art.
This is what fascinates me most about photography.
When we pay attention, symbolism begins to emerge naturally. The camera becomes a tool for capturing essence; which is made up of our relationship to life, to nature, to each other, to meaning and to light. And it is from this way of seeing that a defining style of my own eventually emerged. A style I have come to call Elemental Editorial.
In these maternity photographs of Laura, we encounter another kind of essence entirely.
The session felt nothing short of magical. Laura possesses a warmth that immediately puts people at ease. She is a gentle, heart-centred presence that feels safe and comforting.
In the first image, the backlight from the sun creates what appears to be a halo around her. While entirely natural, the symbolism feels fitting. The photograph reflects the nurturing saintly energy she carries so effortlessly.
In the second image, the setting sun hangs above the horizon while its light dances across the water below. As I look at the photograph, I cannot help but see a deeper symbolism. The water mirrors the life-giving waters of the womb. The sunlight becomes a visual representation of new life entering the world.
Standing beside her are her sisters, forming a quiet triangle around her. They remind me of the ancient archetype of the Triple Goddess. Together they stand like the pillars before the temple of life.
Cyber Angels w/ Kailan & Fyko
Elemental Editorial
The word elemental can be understood in two ways. Firstly, it refers to something fundamental; the primary principle from which everything else emerges. The foundation beneath the surface. Secondly, throughout mythology and folklore, Elementals are personified intelligences of nature. Spirits of earth, water, air, and fire. They are archetypal forces that embody the living world around us.
For me, both definitions are relevant in my work.
Elemental Editorial is a photographic style that brings to light these foundations. Not merely documenting appearances, but attempting to reveal the underlying essence, symbolism, and atmosphere present within a person, place, or moment. The photographs I shared earlier are examples of this.
Each image contains more than its literal subject matter. Beyond the person standing before the camera exists a seemingly other-worldly and spiritual relationship. My role as a photographer is to notice these elements and align them. I am here to sense the moment and to pay attention.
Modern Western culture often encourages us to see the world as purely material. Yet whether through psychology, mythology, philosophy, spirituality, or even modern explorations into consciousness, there remains an enduring recognition that human beings experience reality through layers of meaning just as much as through matter.
And so this is where my work lives. When creating fine-art photography, editorial portraits, creative engagement sessions, or documentary imagery, I am constantly observing the symbolic relationships unfolding within a scene. The way light falls around a person. The shape of a landscape. The sacred geometry. The emotional quality of a moment. There are stories and archetypes that seem to emerge naturally through the people I photograph.
Rather than imposing meaning onto an image, I try to listen for it. Not audible that is, but intuitively.
Looking back, I can see the breadcrumbs leading me towards this approach.
One of my earliest collaborative editorial projects was called Elementals. Created alongside my now close friend and creative partner Fyko, the concept sought to personify the classical elements of nature; giving form to earth, air, fire, and water through fine-art photography and visual storytelling.
At the time, I did not realise how influential that project would become for me.
As my relationship with photography deepened, so too did my relationship with nature.
During a period of significant personal transformation, the natural world became a source of grounding, solace, clarity, and perspective. Forests became places of peace and reflection. Rivers became places of renewal. Mountains became places of re-birth.
I found myself becoming increasingly fascinated by the intelligence of natural systems.
I studied permaculture, regenerative agriculture, gardening, food growing, ecology, and the interconnected relationships that sustain life. Soil microbiology, companion planting, biodiversity, microclimates, seasonal cycles, and the intricate patterns found throughout nature began to capture my imagination.
Elemental Entry - Signed & Numbered, Limited Edition 1/100 - Shades of Fae collection
Pans Nymph - Signed & Numbered, Limited Edition 1/100 - Shades of Fae collection
Fading Fae - Signed & Numbered, Limited Edition 1/100 - Shades of Fae collection
An Otters Muse - Signed & Numbered, Limited Edition 1/100 - Shades of Fae collection
The deeper I looked, the more I recognised recurring patterns.
Not only within ecosystems, but within stories, mythology, and human experience itself.
What began as an interest in photography gradually evolved into a fascination with symbolism, archetypes, and the ancient ways humans have understood their relationship to nature.
Figures such as Pan, The Green Man, woodland spirits, nymphs, and elemental beings began appearing repeatedly throughout my readings, creative work and personal experiences. Whether viewed as mythological figures, psychological archetypes, or symbolic representations of nature itself, they opened a doorway into a richer and more enchanted way of seeing.
And eventually, they began appearing in my photography.
One of the first examples emerged through my work with Kailan, who became a recurring muse within my creative projects.
There was a poised wildness and natural grace to her presence that unconsciously reminded me of the nymphs described throughout ancient mythology which would then translate into our Art.
During our first shoot together, we created an image I later titled Elemental Entry. Within it, Kailan appears suspended amongst a fractal network of trees, almost as though she exists between worlds; part human, part spirit of the forest.
That photograph would later become the starting point for an ongoing fine-art collection called Shades of Fae that explores this mystical relationship between human presence and the living natural world.
As the years passed, I began noticing similar themes appearing throughout my work.
Again and again, mythology seemed to express itself through visual form.
And I wasn’t consciously trying to capture this elemental presence, the archetypes appear naturally through the people, places, and moments I was drawn to photograph.
The more I paid attention, the more these patterns and symbolisms revealed themselves.
And I guess that’s what Elemental Editorial ultimately is.
A style of fine-art and editorial photography that captures the foundational story beneath the surface. Often times it’s quiet, its subliminal and it takes a keen eye to see the layers of meaning, but more than anything ,it is felt.
This is my way of working - listening for symbolism, following intuition, and remaining receptive to unseen relationships between people, nature, light, and myth. It’s being open to something more mythic, enchanting and unknown.
To conclude:
Because much of my photography is created outdoors, on location and immersed within nature, I am often at the mercy of the elements.
In my humble human condition, I seek to collaborate with them.
Time and time again, I find myself moving with nature rather than against it. There is a strange symbiosis that emerges when you stop trying to force a photograph and instead allow yourself to participate in the moment.
The wind lifts precisely when movement is needed. A buzzard lands upon a branch behind the subject. Sunlight breaks through the clouds in perfect unison. During a recent Cyber Angels editorial, shafts of light poured through dense clouds with such intensity they felt almost biblical.
This is Elemental.
It is present within the landscapes, forests, mountains, rivers, and skies that often form the backdrop of my work. Yet it is equally present within the people I photograph in a studio setting
Take Generations, for example; a fine-art concept exploring the feminine within the masculine. Looking back at the images, literally 6 years later, I noticed how naturally the symbolism had arranged itself. Unintentionally, there it is. The Yin contained within the Yang. Composing themselves into patterns reminiscent of Fibonacci spiral.
I did not consciously place every symbol there. Many reveal themselves afterwards.
And perhaps that is the lesson photography continues to teach me.
The world is richer than we often allow ourselves to believe.
Whether you interpret these patterns as symbolism, psychology, archetypes, mythology, synchronicity, spirituality, or simply the creative tendency of the human mind to find meaning, they are there waiting to be noticed.
When I look back, it feels timeless. It feels like it has always there, waiting to be seen and captured.
After writing this article, I realise Elemental Editorial is not simply a visual style. It is a way of seeing and connecting with the world. It is an art of paying attention.
It is a willingness to look beyond appearances and into relationships; between people and nature, myth and reality, energy and material, emotion and form.
After eight years of photography, I can now look back and see the thread connecting everything I have created.
And perhaps that is what photography has always been for me.
Not the act of taking pictures.
But the act of learning how to see.
With love,
Callum
For more of me, see below
Callum Shaw is a UK-based creative photographer, fine-art visual artist, and storyteller creating cinematic, nature-inspired imagery throughout the West Midlands, Peak District, Wales, and across the UK.
Blending documentary authenticity with editorial artistry, his work sits at the intersection of fine-art photography, creative portraiture, engagement photography, and intimate elopements. Drawing inspiration from the natural world, mythology, psychology, and the timeless relationship between humanity and landscape, Callum creates images that feel both deeply personal and transformative.
Through photographing musicians, artists, couples, and individuals navigating meaningful chapters of their lives, he developed a distinctive style characterised by cinematic natural light, emotional depth, symbolic storytelling, and a strong connection to nature.
Rather than viewing photography as a way of merely documenting appearances, Callum approaches each project as an opportunity to reveal something deeper. Whether capturing an adventurous elopement in the mountains of Wales, an engagement session in the Peak District, a creative portrait commission, or a fine-art editorial concept, his intention remains the same: to create imagery that feels alive, meaningful, and timeless.
His work is particularly suited to couples and individuals who feel most at home beneath open skies, among forests, mountains, rivers, and wild landscapes. Those who value experiences over traditions, authenticity over performance, and meaningful connection over convention often find themselves drawn to his approach.
Influenced by the worlds of fine-art photography, cinema, philosophy, spirituality, and human psychology, Callum's images often explore themes of transformation, identity, belonging, freedom, and the relationship between people and place. This perspective has helped shape a body of work that feels both contemporary and timeless; blending the emotional honesty of documentary photography with the visual impact of editorial and fine-art imagery.
Today, Callum works throughout the UK and across the world, creating creative engagement photography, artistic portraits, adventurous elopements, personal branding imagery, and fine-art visual projects for those seeking something beyond traditional photography.
As of June 2026 he is living around Birmingham, West-midlands and regularly takes inspirations from Wales, Peak District, Cornwall and Devon.
