George Butler

George Butler is an award-winning illustrator, an artist reporter who has drawn conflict zones, climate issues, humanitarian crises, and social issues. His drawings are done in situ—in pen, ink, and watercolor. 

In August 2012, Butler walked from Turkey across the border into Syria, where as a guest of the rebel Free Syrian Army, he drew the Civil War-damaged, small, and empty town of Azaz. 

A decade later, he spent several days in Kharkiv, Ukraine, recording the lives of those who lived underground to avoid the Russian bombardment. These drawings can be seen in the Archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Butler attaches his drawings to the personal testimonies of those he meets and records their resolve and resilience alongside the vulnerability of their situations, including in a leprosy clinic in Nepal, of a militia in Yemen, mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine, a cesarean section in Afghanistan, the artisanal oil fields of Myanmar, and the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

His drawings have been published by The Times (London), Monocle magazine, New York Times, The Guardian, SZ-Magazin, VQR, BBC, CNN, Der Spiegel, ARD television (Germany), and NPR. 

In addition to the Victoria and Albert Museum, his work has been shown in the Imperial War Museum North, Lambeth Palace, and the National Army Museum.

With three friends in 2014, Butler set up the Hands Up Foundation, which funds health and education programs in Syria and neighboring countries. It has raised at least USD $10 million.