Ernie Button

Written By Christopher Imlay

Ernie Button’s photography is best known for the portfolios Cerealism (landscapes and portraits created from breakfast cereal) and Vanishing Spirits: The Dried Remains of Single Malt Scotch. 

His photography has been featured in a collaboration with The Macallan Single Malt Scotch in their Masters of Photography series in 2015.  He has exhibited internationally including exhibitions in the United States, China, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. 

Photo-Eye Gallery, based in Santa Fe, NM, has published Vanishing Spirits: The Macallan Collection through Photo-eye Editions. Ernie’s whisky photography was featured in the July 2019 issue of National Geographic and his work has been seen widely in publications like The New York Times, Whisky Advocate, Whisky Magazine, American Photo, Popular Photography, Esquire, Wired, Smithsonian and the Huffington Post among others. 

Scientific research explaining the Vanishing Spirits phenomenon was published in the Physics Journal Physical Review Letters in March 2016.  There is a book of his Whisky images that was released through Chronicle Books in May 2022 called The Art of Whisky.  His unique photography was featured on the CBS Sunday Morning program in January 2024. 

Find ernie button on Instagram and online
Videos by Ernie Button
And Still (Dark-Side Mix) (Arielko video)
And Still (Dark-Side Mix) (Arielko video)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Arielko

SONG: And Still (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Arielko

SONG: And Still (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

Inspired by the music and lyrics of the song, this work explores the theme of departed loved ones and those they leave behind. The creative process included reading Peter's interviews about the song's genesis, researching expressions of remembrance in art and culture, and noting personal associations evoked by the lyrics and reflections on loss. The central theme that emerged is that of empty homes symbolizing the absence of their former inhabitants. Starlings are used to represent the pervasive wonder and mystery that exists all around us, before and after we are here.

Song info:

And Still is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“I wrote a song for my dad a number of years back, which I was actually able to play him, which was ‘Father, Son’. When my mum died, I wanted to do something for her, but it's taken a while before I felt comfortable and distant enough to be able to write something.

I was trying also to write a little bit in the style of the music that my parents responded to, so I think there is some music from the 40s probably that had an influence on the song. In the middle I wanted to write my mum a beautiful melody. She loved classical music, so we have a beautiful cello playing there. It took a while to get that right, it can't be too emotional or too underplayed, but I think we got there in the end.”

-pg

The Family and the Fishing Net
The Family and the Fishing Net

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Nathaniel Barlam

SONG: The Family and the Fishing Net FROM Peter Gabriel 4

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Nathaniel Barlam

SONG: The Family and the Fishing Net FROM Peter Gabriel 4

Video info

I created this musical comic five years back as a way to exorcise the anxieties of my imminent wedding. Looking at it now, I’m glad to say my marriage has been far happier than the one depicted in my video.

Song info:

The Family and the Fishing Net is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's fourth solo album, released in September 1982.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and David Lord.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

‘It's basically a wedding song, but it's more an approach from the undercurrents of the wedding ritual. There are quite a lot of situations that we accept as perfectly normal and regular, traditional, that have this element of ritual that makes deep impressions on the psyche. And this is a somewhat impressionistic account of a wedding. I'd also been reading quite a lot of Dylan Thomas at the time, so there is that influence in the lyric writing.’ - pg

This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix)
This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix)

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Ernie Button

SONG: This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Ernie Button

SONG: This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

I was drawn to work with the song This is Home because the idea of "home" intrigues me.  It’s a word that typically evokes comfort and belonging - rarely is it used in a negative sense.  That emotional weight made the song a compelling foundation for visual exploration.

Travel and photography are two of the great joys in my life.  They allow me to connect with places on a personal level.  The more I return to certain locations, the more those places begin to take on the quiet, familiar feeling of home.  I’ve often noticed the presence of a painted stick-figure on sidewalks and platforms of places I travel to, guiding travelers from one point to another - an anonymous, inanimate travel guide.  That figure became a kind of symbol for me: a silent companion across different destinations.

Train travel holds a unique resonance for me.  Where I live, it’s not a common mode of transportation, so when I travel by train, it feels both novel and deeply reflective.  It’s a shared experience, yet also intensely individual - each of us moving along the same track, heading to vastly different destinations.  It offers space for contemplation, for imagining what it means to return - to oneself, to others, to a place that feels like home.

In this project, I’ve used only my own still photographs that I have taken from some of my most meaningful travels to create all of the AI-assisted video sequences.  Paired with Peter’s lyrics “There's nowhere else I’m going, I know this is home, and home is where I have to be… I know this is my home… you are my home” - the imagery becomes a meditation on what “home” truly means.  For each of us, that meaning varies.  It might be a person, a place, a memory, or a feeling.  But the desire is universal - the need for a space, physical or emotional, that offers us comfort, connection, and belonging.

Song info:

This Is Home is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2023. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“This Is Home is a love song. It began with inspiration from some of the great Tamla Motown rhythm sections so we’re trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps. The groove I like a lot, Tony Levin does a great bass part there.

I did an unusual thing for me in that I tried doing this low voice / high voice thing, so you get this almost conversational voice at the beginning and the second part is a higher, more emotional voice. I thought that would be both intimate and emotive to put the two side by side.”

-pg

Christopher Imlay https://www.command-x.com
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