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Blaine ellis Photography

"Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting."
  • The Density of Time
  • Chinatown
  • Nocturnes
  • Turkey
  • Cappodocia
  • Italy
  • Films: Ya Ta Hey! Alcatraz
  • about
  • contact
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Photographer Blaine Ellis not only explores the world around him with his camera, but he also explores the technical possibilities of his camera, the cultural context of his subject matter, and the human lineage of classical forms: The human figure, architecture, landscapes,and still life.

I became familiar with Ellis’ photography when he was in New Mexico photographing sacred architecture, sacred in the classical sense: Mosques, temples and chapels. This interest has taken him to sacred sites in many countries. His content, the subject of his photos, expands to include sacred architecture in the vernacular: An abandoned building, a doorway, a window,a path, a landscape or a staircase on a dark city street.some of the works are in black and white,with attention to rich illumination and harmony of form. Others are saturated in expressive color.

Referring to another classic form, the still life, he often disrupts the formal harmony, bringing it into the present time by his choice of content or disturbing the balance with his placement of the formal elements. If a work of art can be formally playful Ellis has achieved it.

His body of work, The human Figure, Swimmers, is both representational and symbolic, and, with the additional photographic technique of blurring the images, alludes to a deeper interior impulse. He adds a depth of mystery, generously inviting the viewer to participate in a narrative, to use their imaginations and to evoke their internal story about the art work. Importantly, Ellis will often use an impressionistic, painterly saturation of color and a sweep of blurred movement. In other photographs, the water appears monochromatic, a mysterious color field that the figures, the swimmers , are contemplating as they move toward it. At other times, the swimmers emerge from, or float on the surface, always blurred, mysterious figures, not individuals. There is very little detail, a strip of color here and there. No more.

Photography has historically been used to document,to inform,to capture a moment in time,to make a visual record. I Ellis’ photographs, his artistic choices of content, subject, form, mood, movement and color are enhanced and expanded by his mastery of the photographic medium itself, the camera, and made an integral part of his creative expression.

Bonnie Lumaghi, former deputy director New Mexico Museum of Art, retired