DAVID ELLINGSEN PHOTOGRAPHY

Photolife newsblog - Hibernus Exhibition at Akasha Art Projects in Toronto

A nice write-up about the show from Photolife Magazine’s newsblog.

Lenscratch published a feature today on the Hibernus and Sea/Life series…happily coinciding with the opening tonight at Akasha Art Projects.

Lenscratch is a blogzine that explores contemporary photography and offers opportunities for exposure and community. Considered one of the 10 Photography-Related blogs you should be reading by Source Review, Wired.com, and InStyle Magazine.

It was a big honour to be interviewed for the May issue of PhotoZOOM magazine…you can read the article here starting on page 44, or click on the individual pages to link up.

I am honoured to have been asked to give a presentation on my career to date by the PPOC-BC (Professional Photographers of Canada – BC Chapter). It will happen Monday, September 20th, at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and will focus on both the Fine Art and Commercial aspects of my business.
Here’s a link to the official reminder, which you can see below.

Freelance journalist Ehren Seeland recently contacted me for a new series about the people of Vancouver. Tourism Vancouver regularly publishes articles on the events and locations for visitors and Ehren felt one thing that should be added are the people that make up our city. Sounds good to me…

As Ehren said about this new feature, “Starting Tuesday, March 9th, I will post a weekly featured Vancouverite as a short interview which will be linked to the site’s Vancouverite section. I think that this will be a great way to showcase the diverse range of people that make up our populace, but also a way to trade insider tips, promote local businesses, and share our knowledge of the city with each other (and people who plan to visit). I’m interested in what you’re doing in the city and would love to feature a little glimpse of Vancouver through your eyes.”
See the article online here.

This Week’s Featured Vancouverite:
David Ellingsen

Hometown:
Cortes Island, BC

How long have you been a Vancouverite?
10 years

Occupation:
I am a photographer. In my commercial work, I photograph people for advertising, editorial and corporate clients, attracting commissions from publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, and People along with partnerships with DDB, MTV/Nickelodeon, BC Place Stadium, Translink and BC Hydro. I also have a fairly significant fine art practice with recent exhibitions in China and the US. www.davidellingsen.com

Favourite place in the city:
Iona Beach on the north side of the airport. I’m a keen road cyclist and usually include this epic location on every ride I can. Wide open space that few seem to know about…and a walkable jetty that will put you in the middle of Georgia Straight. Gorgeous.

Best Way to Spend a Saturday in the city:
Well, for starters, a bike ride would have to be in there. Ride to breakfast at Little Nest on Commercial Drive, stop at the farmer’s market at Trout Lake, cruise on Main Street and hit the Seawall. The Vancouver Art Gallery has been showing some stellar stuff over the last few years so I’d put that on my list as well. Phew…

Favourite Vancouver restaurant:
Little Nest for breakfast or lunch. I was going to say the Drive’s best kept secret, but it’s so busy now that I suppose that wouldn’t be true anymore. Their target market is young families so the kids abound, but if you’re cool with that and don’t mind a little friendly chaos, the food is downright fantastic (mostly organic and local too) and the coffee some of the best in town (a triple shot is the standard).

Top Insider Tip for Visitors:
Gene Cafe on Main St has the best coffee in Vancouver…worth the wait.

A feature article from Photo District News online, Photoserve, was published today about the installation in BC Place Stadium. I was interviewed about the project in relation to the renovations for the 2010 Winter Olympics and beyond. The resulting write-up, sent out by email newsletter to 15,000 Creatives, is an in-depth story on the shoot itself, the production behind it and working with DDB Canada/Karacters here in Vancouver.

I always check out these newsletters for industry info, updates and interesting articles from one of the original online sources for the photography industry. If you’re interested you can sign up for future newsletters of the Photoserve News here.

Here’s how the article looks:

…and the newsletter itself…

My friend and fellow photographer Elaine Ling was mentioned in this weekend’s Globe & Mail. Her beautiful new book “Mongolia – Land of the Deer Stone” has recently been published and was given a glowing write-up in the Saturday edition.

I met Elaine at the Lishui Photo Festival in China in December. The only other Canadian at the event, we spent many hours discussing photography on our photo expeditions. It was great to have someone to lament the demise of the Polaroid 55PN film with…she has used that film for most of her career. We also spoke about the transition from film to digital in the Fine Art realm which is a discussion I seem to be having a lot these days in one form or another (sidebar: check out curator/gallery owner Brian Clamp’s excellent interview on Adbase for some interesting words on this theme). Elaine is a fascinating person who’s 25 year career has yielded some stellar work. The G&M article is more eloquent than I so I’ll leave the rest to them.

Congratulations Elaine!

A quick thank you to Marc Koegel and Vancouver Photo Workshops for hosting a lecture with me…the first in the series “Careers in Photography”. Focusing equally on both the commercial and fine art sides of my work, I had 50+ people arrive on a rainy evening to hear about my experiences over the last 10 years. I was honored by their interest in me and my career to date. Lots of great questions and interaction.

A few people have been asking me for the list of the photo competitions I mentioned as being important (of the ones I am aware of anyway) so here they are again:

International Photography Awards
http://www.photoawards.com

Applied Arts
http://www.appliedartsmag.com/

Black & White Magazine
http://www.bandwmag.com/

Center for Fine Art Photography
http://www.c4fap.org/

Photo District News
http://www.pdnonline.com

PX3
http://www.px3.fr/

Canada Council Art Bank
http://www.artbank.ca

Lightwork
http://www.lightwork.org

Well, that was quite the trip.

(Quick recap for those who have not read this Blog before: I had been invited to be an exhibiting guest artist at the 2009 Lishui International Photo Festival in Lishui, China. A bi-annual event in a city of 2.5 million in western China, the Festival runs from November 28th to December 3rd. It will be the first public exhibition of my new fine art series, Future Imperfect. 30 artists were invited from North America.)

And now on with the show…
After 26 hours of travel to the city of Lishui in China (about 6 hrs south of Shanghai) I finally arrived at the hotel just after 8pm, more than a little exhausted. I wanted nothing more than a long shower and a warm bed, but as soon as I put my bags down at the front desk the volunteers whisked me away to the Opening Ceremonies, which were already underway. I was expecting a conference room or something of that sort, so I was a little surprised to be ushered into a shiny new stadium where more than 10,000 people were in the stands watching the goings-on. Surreal after a trip like that. Television cameras, huge video screens, award presentations that seemed like they belonged on the Grammys…recipients rising up out of the stage to the top of a pyramid-like podium, hands raised in the air. Chinese generals, cultural dignitaries and a musical tribute with 100 dancers, singers and a lighting show that would put Vegas to shame. And all for a Photography Festival…hooray China!

Here’s the stage from where I was seated…

…and when I turned around (yes those bleachers are full!).

There were about 60 international guests at the hotel for the festival and the next morning we all got up early, had breakfast (Thousand Island dressing DOES look like yogurt) and were whisked off to Baiyan Forest Park, one of two main sites for the festival. A beautiful park at the edge of the city with a string of classical Chinese buildings which contained the galleries.

Entrance to the park’s festival site…

…and the view of some of the galleries.

Me with my work…

…and guests wandering through.

Following a morning wandering around the galleries we were taken for an official Welcome Luncheon Banquet and then back to the galleries to meet with curators and other experts from China. Lastly we headed to a converted oil factory to see the exhibits of the featured Chinese photographers. Beautiful work, including Lu Guang, the winner of this year’s W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant…a deserving honour for some moving work. A quote from the website about his work: “Lu Guang has been documenting the ecological disasters in China resulting from the rapid growth of the economy since 2005, focusing on environmental pollution and the problem of schistosomiasis. Over the last three decades, peoples’ living standards have constantly been on the rise in the country. At the same time, industrial pollution has brought serious consequences for public health and for the environment at large.”

The remaining days were filled with photography trips into the surrounding picturesque countryside, exploring the city of Lishui itself and connecting with the photographers and curators from China and North America. I’m going to list a few of my favorites from the festival below. There was so much beautiful work there but these caught my eye…

Joni Sternbach’s “Surfers” tintypes (you may recognize these from the recent October cover of PDN).

Chris Raeker’s “Midnight Carnival” series

Stephen Berkman’s ambrotypes, “Predicting the Past”

Mariette Pathy Allen’s “The Gender Frontier”

Mark Jaremko’s “Nightscapes”

Fellow Canadian Elaine Ling was there with her brand new book “Mongolia”

Wu Qi’s “The Heavy Dust”

There were MANY Chinese photographers with stellar work but it seems a lack of web support for them. Apologies, but there are no links for the following Chinese artists. You’ll have to hit the festival site)

Zhang Chao’s “Ugly”
No link available. See Lishui Festival site.

Fu Weixin’s “Run with the Dream”
No link available. See Lishui Festival site.

Su Jian’s “Mother of the Family”
No link available. See Lishui Festival site.

Well, that’s all for now. If you’re still with me, thanks for your interest. It was a great event.
Thanks again to Yan Li and the volunteers who were the ultimate hosts.
I’ll leave you with my “Photo of the Day” from Day 2…couldn’t resist.

I will be giving a lecture with Vancouver Photo Workshops on the evening of Tuesday, December 15th from 7 to 9pm.

“Welcome to this new and exciting lecture series centered around the busy working lives of contemporary commercial and fine-art photographers. With this new lecture series, VPW aims to bring you influential and inspirational photographers, all eager to share their thoughts and advice on what it takes not only to be a successful photographer, but also a successful business owner. The first event of this new series will feature acclaimed local photographer David Ellingsen.
David is not just a very competent and unique photographer, he also runs a very unique business, focusing on commercial assignments as well as fine-art collections. David will show a large inventory of his images, and discuss how his photographic career has evolved to what it is today. He will be talking about running his commercial photography business alongside his fine-art career. David will be able to answer all your questions including any advice relating to running a successful photographic business.
Come and join us for this rare opportunity and be prepared to get inspired!”

See the full write-up and register here.