Biography
BIOGRAPHY
David Ellingsen is a Canadian photographer creating images that speak to the relationship between humans and the natural world. His work lives within the sphere of advocacy and activism, engaging with photography’s dominant role in these areas. A restless artist, Ellingsen maintains a varied practice of which intersections form the foundation – intersections of observer and participant, documentary photography and contemporary art, archivist and surrealist.
Ellingsen’s photographs are exhibited internationally and are part of the permanent collections of the Chinese Museum of Photography, South Korea's Datz Museum of Art and Canada's Beaty Biodiversity Museum. They have been shortlisted for Photolucida's Critical Mass Book Award, appeared in National Geographic, and awarded First Place at the Prix de la Photographie Paris and the International Photography Awards.
In 2000 Ellingsen began his career as a freelance assignment photographer, eventually working with clients such as the New York Times Magazine, Business Development Bank of Canada, Canadian Medical Association, Oprah Winfrey Network, People magazine and CBC Radio Canada. Simultaneously, he was exhibiting his personal work in private and public galleries. Ellingsen continued this hybrid path for 12 years and then, in 2013, focused fully on his artistic practice.
Ellingsen lives and makes his work in Canada’s Pacific Northwest, moving between the city of Victoria and the remote island of Cortes where he was raised.