Philip Butler ARPS is a Worcestershire-based photographer focusing primarily on documenting the remains of Great Britain’s inter-war architecture.
“I’m fascinated in this bold but all-too-brief period of architectural innovation. Amongst these now ageing structures lie what is left of the country’s first steps into the Modernist and Art Deco movements. Often in need of sympathetic renovation, occasionally on the brink of demolition, but increasingly seen as important pieces of our built heritage, I have been capturing what is left of yesterday’s futuristic creations in the Twenty-First Century”.
Philip’s photographs have been published nationally and internationally both online and in print. He also contributed an image to Elaine Harwood’s acclaimed book Art Deco Britain published by Batsford.
2019 saw the publication of ‘Odeon Relics : Nineteen-Thirties Icons in the Twenty-First Century’, an annotated photo-book documenting the surviving buildings constructed by the iconic cinema chain in the 1930s.
Philip’s new book on the London Underground, a collaboration with writer and historian Joshua Abbott — ‘London Tube Stations 1924-1961’ — was published by FUEL in April 2023.
Philip is also one of the founding members of the Art Deco Society UK, a not-for-profit organisation celebrating all forms of design from the UK between the wars.
Previous Features
2023
‘The stories behind the world’s greatest railway stations’ on Financial Times (online and print)
‘London Tube Stations’ book review on Wallpaper*
2022
‘Milk & Modernism - The Rise and Fall of the Torrington Creamery’ (words and photos) on Art Deco Society UK
‘Tube Station Anthology’ on Londonist
2021
‘Cinematic Decline’ on Mnngful Stories
One Image series ‘Dying Currency’ on Ffoton
2020
‘Odeon Relics’ in The Modernist 37 ‘Kino’
Interview on The Pictorial List
‘Small Hours’ on The Pictorial List
Former Odeon, Leicester - shot of the month in Digital Camera Magazine #233
Interview for Issue_7 Photo London Special Edition
Harris Brush Factory in The Modernist 34 Juxtaposition
2019
‘Odeon Relics’ in La Vanguardia Sunday Magazine - December 29th 2019
‘Odeon Relics’ in RPS Journal (159/12 - Dec 2019)
‘Odeon Relics’ on The Guardian
Eltham Palace (words and photos) for Art Deco Society UK
‘Odeon Relics’ on Creative Boom
BBC Antiques Roadtrip talking about my photography - Spring 2019