DAVID ELLINGSEN PHOTOGRAPHY

Last night I attended the launch of Vancouver photographer Gabor Gasztonyi’s wonderful new book, A Room in the City, representing a five year project of photographing the residents of the Cobalt, Balmoral, Regent and Sunrise Hotels in the Downtown Eastside. I’ve seen many, many projects come out of that part of the city but few as strong as this collection of wonderful, heartbreaking images (Lincoln Clarkes Heroines, published in 2001, must also be mentioned).

The launch was also accompanied by a gallery exhibition, the first one for PhotoHaus Gallery, part of Vancouver Photo Workshops (and also the studio where I am based from) at 14 West 7th Ave. If you have time to make it down you will not be disappointed.

Here are a few photos of the book…please excuse the low res…

Photo Donuts?
I hadn’t heard of them either…until I found their site was directing traffic my way and my curiosity got the better of me. I was a little weirded out that someone has pulled a whole collection off my site to theirs without permission, but looks like someone there likes this work.

Finally…a donut I like…still naughty, but good for me.

I am excited to have received five Honorable Mentions at this year’s International Photography Awards out of the approximately 15,000 submissions.

Some of the new Polaroid work I have been shooting was awarded in the following categories:
Portrait Professional
Fine Art Portrait-Professional
Self Promotion-Professional
People Other-Professional

And the image of Vancouver harbour during the 2010 Winter Olympics was awarded in the following category:
Cityscapes-Professional

Yah…

I spent last weekend in Victoria at an exciting workshop with Luz Gallery and instructor Dave Aharonian. Through a process of creating digitally enlarged negatives and contact printing them using the platinum/palladium process, it was a welcome return to traditional printing methods with breathtaking results. The fusion of modern and traditional tools in this process seems a logical hybrid for future work…I plan on incorporating this new process into my fine art work flow. Thanks again to Luz and Dave for the great weekend!
Here’s a few snaps from the darkroom…

Dave discusses the chemistry

Mix it up!

Applying the emulsion

Negative sandwich for contact printing

Into the contact printing frame

(looks like I got too excited here to photograph the exposure process in the light box)

Developing...

...and evaluating the print

And away we went printing our own work for the afternoon.

One of mine from the Pacific series...love.

Jordan Smith has been in the news again recently and I was very pleased to have a portrait I took illustrate the article…I consider his story a landmark case for human rights in Canada.

“2010 has already proven to be a significant year for Vancouver in the fight against homophobic violence.  On April 30th, BC Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves agreed with Crown counsel to declare a hate crime verdict in the case of Jordan Smith against his attacker Michael Kandola, one of two high profile assault cases involving anti-gay slurs at trial this year. The second case, which also occurred in Vancouver’s gay neighbourhood, involves the brutal attack that left 63 year old Ritchie Dowrey in a coma and with severe brain damage.  It is set to go to trial on July 21st in Vancouver provincial court. Witnesses say they heard the accused, Shawn Woodward, say, “He’s a faggot.  He deserved it.”
“If this crime is not punished accordingly, we all lose something,” said Dowrey’s friend Lindsay Wincherauk.”

- Nelson Wong, LOV Magazine, July/August 2010 issue.

You can read the full story here on page 12 + 13 of the current issue.

Showing “fresh works from creative professionals”, Photography Served has featured my recent collection of Polaroid Corporate portraits.

Some out-takes from a recent shoot…more to come…