Engineering asks
“How does this work?”
Edwin’s Arevalo
Meet Edwin
One person. A lot of different ways to create.
Edwin is the person behind Edwin’s Lens—a creative portfolio and personal studio where furniture, photography, engineering, design, fabrication, and other projects live under one roof. He is a craftsman, photographer, builder, designer, engineer, and problem solver who has never felt the need to fit neatly into a single category.
The common thread is not one medium. Edwin simply enjoys creating things.
More than one thing
Edwin has never been easy to label.
Edwin has always been interested in making things, but “making things” can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes that means building a table from a slab of wood. Sometimes it means picking up a camera. Sometimes it means designing something, figuring out how a mechanism should work, or solving a problem that doesn’t have an obvious answer.
Photography, furniture, engineering, fabrication, and design may look like completely different fields, but to Edwin they all scratch the same itch:
“Creating something that didn’t exist before.”
Edwin is not claiming mastery of every discipline. What shows up again and again is curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to learn something new when a project asks for it.
Engineering a different kind of creation
Problem-solving came before the workshop.
Edwin holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, and that background has shaped how he thinks and creates. Aerospace engineering gave Edwin experience with designing systems, solving complicated problems, understanding how things work, thinking about constraints, iterating on ideas, turning concepts into physical solutions, and paying attention to details that actually matter in the real world.
Building and creating did not begin with woodworking. Engineering was another expression of the same curiosity that still shows up throughout Edwin’s work today.
Engineering taught Edwin how to solve problems. Craftsmanship gives him another way to build the solution. Photography gives him another way to see it.
Always making something
Edwin is usually working on something.
That might be a piece of furniture, a photography project, an engineering idea, a shop project, a design, a repair, or a completely random idea that seemed worth trying at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday. Edwin genuinely enjoys figuring things out—even when the path is unclear at the start.
He does not always need to know exactly how something will work before beginning. Part of the enjoyment comes from experimenting, learning, solving problems, and improving the result along the way. Sometimes the first attempt is rough. Sometimes it is surprisingly close. Either way, something usually gets built, photographed, redesigned, or taken apart and tried again.
- A piece of furniture
- A photography project
- An engineering idea
- A shop project
- A design sketch
- A repair that probably did not need to become a whole project
- A completely random idea that seemed worth trying
Why wood
Earth’s very own cosmic rarity.
Making the world a better place by using sustainable materials and practices has always been a huge part of Edwin’s building process and life. It’s no surprise that his favorite material is wood.
NASA has still yet to find any credible evidence that extraterrestrial life exists, meaning wood may just be one of the rarest materials in the universe—because, as far as we know, it only exists here on Earth. (Edwin is fully aware this is not a scientific theorem. It is, however, a fun observation.)
Wood is created by living organisms and carries the history of the life and environment that produced it. Every slab has its own grain, figure, color, knots, imperfections, and character. Edwin enjoys working with those natural qualities rather than forcing every piece into the same mold.
Improving the world
A guiding principle, not a grand claim.
Improving the world has always been one of Edwin’s biggest goals. That does not mean he believes he is going to single-handedly change everything. It means creation, for Edwin, should ideally leave something better than it was before.
Using sustainable materials and practices
Building things meant to last
Repairing instead of automatically replacing
Learning how things work
Finding better solutions
Creating useful objects
Helping people through creative work
Continuing to learn and improve
Engineering taught Edwin to look for better solutions. Craftsmanship taught him to care about the way something is made. Photography allows him to capture and communicate what he sees. These are different tools, but they share the same intention: contribute something positive, useful, and thoughtfully made.
Behind the camera
Another way Edwin creates.
Photography is not a random second business tucked onto a furniture website. It is another form of making—working with light, composition, perspective, people, emotion, storytelling, and visual design.
Edwin’s photography includes portraits, weddings, events, products, businesses, and creative projects. Woodworking creates objects. Engineering creates solutions. Photography creates images and preserves moments. They are all part of the same creative philosophy behind Edwin’s Lens.
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The craftsman
More than knowing how to use tools.
For Edwin, craftsmanship is a mindset. It means caring about the details, understanding the material, solving problems, learning from mistakes, improving techniques, building things to last, and taking pride in the finished result.
Craftsmanship extends beyond woodworking. Engineering, photography, furniture making, and design can all be approached the same way:
“Make it thoughtfully. Make it well. Keep learning.”
The way Edwin thinks
Different questions. Same person.
Photography asks
“How can this be seen?”
Craftsmanship asks
“How can this be made well?”
Creativity asks
“What if we tried something different?”
The work
Explore what Edwin makes.
Photography
Portraits, weddings, events, products, businesses, and creative photography.
View photography
Engineering & Design
Engineering projects, technical work, design, fabrication, prototypes, and problem-solving.
View other work
Other Projects
Experiments, builds, repairs, creative projects, and things that don’t fit neatly elsewhere.
View other workThe bigger idea
Different tools. Same curiosity.
Edwin’s Lens isn’t really about photography. It isn’t really about furniture. It isn’t really about engineering. It is about making—a place where Edwin can bring together the different things he enjoys creating and share them with people.
Whether Edwin is holding a camera, working with a piece of hardwood, designing a solution, or figuring out how to build something that has never existed before, the motivation is usually the same: curiosity, creativity, and the desire to make something better.
Edwin likes making things.
And he wants those things to make the world a little better.
What’s next
There’s always something new to make.
From behind the camera to the workshop and everywhere in between, Edwin is always looking for something new to build, photograph, design, or figure out. Edwin’s Lens is where all of it comes together.