Photos of Portland-Area Fae Folk
In February of 2025, I decided to use the free time created by a period of questionable employment to document the fae folk that live around my home in Portland, Oregon. Thankfully, they are drawn to human listlessness and long hair, so I was moderately successful. These photos are the results of those interactions.
Pictured left are three Flower Fairies, photographed on Canyon Path, within Washington Park on February 13th, 2025. They wanted me to follow them, but that’s never a good idea.
Pictured left is a River Nymph, photographed on February 7th, 2025 in the Willamette River. Nymphs are nature deities that personify a natural feature. They aren’t usually seen so close to the city, but I heard rumors of this one for a couple days, and managed to lure her out with some very stinky fish.
Pictured right is a Fly Agaric Elf, photographed on February 2nd, 2025 in the Hoyt Arboretum. They are named, of course, after the poisonous mushroom (Amanita Muscaria) that they resemble. Supposedly these elves are also poisonous if ingested, but I wasn’t interested in confirming that factoid.
Pictured left is the Holly King, photographed February 1st, 2025 in the Hoyt Arboretum. A high fae embodying the colder and darker half of the year, and locked in eternal battle with the Oak King. The Holly King reaches his peak power at midwinter, and weakens until the Spring Equinox, when he is overpowered by the Oak King. Then, from Midsummer on the Holly King gains power until overtaking the Oak King on the Autumn Equinox, and the cycle continues. Though not often seen by humans he’s not actively kidnapping (a popular high fae pastime), I was able to convince him to pose for me by appealing to his extreme vanity.
Pictured right is a gnome, photographed at Tom McCall Waterfront Park on February 6th, 2025. He came out of his burrow to complain that I was “blocking his tree.” When I told him I wasn’t big enough for that, he said “sure looks that way from here.”
Pictured left is a frog faerie, photographed on Canyon Path in Washington Park on February 12th. Frog faeries are just what they sound like—frogs that are also faeries. This one paid very little notice of me, instead intently focused on the mosquitos that I tend to attract, allowing me to obtain this portrait.
All puppets constructed, sculpted, and painted and photographed by me outside, around Portland, OR for the 2025 Faebruary art challenge, hosted on Instagram by artist Brett Manning.