Featured Artist: DAVID ELLINGSEN

 

 

 

Born in Campbell River, raised on Cortes Island, and now living in Victoria, David Ellingsen is an artist whose photo-based work speaks to the relationship between humans and the natural world—predominantly through long-term projects that focus on climate, biodiversity, and the forest.

His work has appeared in National Geographic and been awarded First Place at the International Photography Awards, with recent exhibitions at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and Campbell River Museum.

Over the years, his work has employed a wide range of innovative image making techniques. The Anthropocene project (the skulls) uses a technique known as ‘focus stacking’ where multiple photographs, all with different zones of critical focus, are layered together, revealing only each one’s sharp area in the final image. The result, previously unachievable in the days of film photography, is a tack-sharp image, often slightly surreal in the final print.

In partnership with Vancouver’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum, the project Life As We’ve Known It uses the last of Ellingsen’s expired Polaroid 4×5 film processed using ‘solarization’ (also called the Sabattier effect), a traditional wet darkroom technique most famously known in the work of Man Ray.

davidellingsen.com@davidellingsenphoto

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