Through his work, portrait photographer and long-time Star Trek fan Rory Lewis has had the opportunity to direct and shoot portraits of many of his icons, including Sir Patrick Stewart and William Shatner. Now, in celebration of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary year, Lewis is looking to expand his collection of Star Trek cast portraits with plans for a printed book and a traveling exhibition.



Over the course of his career as a portrait photographer working for magazines and newspapers, Rory Lewis found himself assigned to direct and photograph some of the most iconic names in Trek in intimate portrait sittings. Working one-on-one with the stars, Lewis attempts to capture displays of raw emotion in his own style.

One of our favorites is a series of Brent Spiner. “Brent is a wonderfully talented Actor,” Lewis told TrekMovie. “I directed Brent to assume expressive poses, both pensive and thought provoking. Brent is a natural in front of the camera, and in such a short time we created some wonderful portraits.”

With 2016 being the 50th anniversary year of Star Trek, Lewis decided that it was time to lay the groundwork for a bigger project. “After these two portrait sittings [with Sir Patrick Stewart and William Shatner] I thought wouldn’t it be amazing to shoot all of the Star Trek Cast in my own unique style. I began writing letters and making calls and started to arrange sittings.”

But, it proved expensive for Lewis who turned to Kickstarter to help offset travel and production costs. “[With] many of the actors living all over the world it became a difficult project. Hence I came upon Kickstarter, engaging with other fans to help create this project offering them rewards they could not find anywhere else.”

Thanks to funding from earlier Kickstarter campaigns over the last year, Lewis has already produced some stunning work. To date, he’s created portraits of:

Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean Luc Picard) Star Trek the Next Generation

William Shatner (Captain James T Kirk) Star Trek

Brent Spiner (Data) Star Trek the Next Generation

Andrew Robinson (Garak) Deep Space Nine

Rene Auber Jonois (Odo) Deep Space Nine

Steven Berkoff (Hagath) Deep Space Nine

David Warner (Chancellor Gorkon) (Gul Madred) Star Trek the Next Generation

Mark Margoulis (Dr. Nel Apga) Star Trek the Next Generation

Robert Picardo (The Doctor) Star Trek Voyager

Armin Shimerman (Quark) Deep Space Nine

Richard Herd (Admiral Paris) Star Trek Voyager

Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T Riker Star Trek The Next Generation

Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun) (Star Trek Deep Space Nine

Walter Koenig (Chekov) Star Trek

Harry Groener (Tam Elbrun) Star Trek: The Next Generation

If Lewis meets his goal of £2,000 (about $2,800 US), he promises to add an additional 4-25 portraits, with the final number depending on how much money he is ultimately able to raise. The book, which will contain all portraits funded thus far plus any extras funded by the current campaign, is scheduled to be released October of this year, with a traveling exhibit hitting the road in 2017.



Sir Patrick Stewart



Jonathan Frakes



Andrew Robinson (Garak) and Robert Picardo (The Doctor)

Lewis says that he intends to put the portraits on display in both the US and Europe next year. “I hope to display the project at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas in 2017 and bring the project to conventions in Europe next year. It will take another 6 months to complete all the portraits with successful funding.”