Stars, 2014.
(Source Material Credit: STScI/Hubble & NASA).
Stars, 2014 explores my desire to find some balance between a
relationship with the wild places of my youth, and a pervasive
sense of disconnectedness with the natural world.
The Western landscape tradition embodies a pairing that James
Elkins calls ‘the subject-object relationship’. Typified by the
‘scenic viewpoint’ or tourist panoramic overlook, we gaze, often
through binoculars or telescopes, at wide vistas and dramatic
seascapes, awed and overwhelmed. But this landscape
experience often alienates the viewer from the scene and, just
as the landscape itself becomes an object, a separation arises
between them.
Today the majority of people live in urban or semi-urban
environments, experiencing the landscape from a distanced
position mediated through various media and technology. From
this viewpoint the notion of the landscape in all its sensuous
materiality, our being within it rather than outside it, seems
beyond reach.
Stars, 2014 addresses this distancing by drawing the viewer
right into the heart of a forest which still holds mystery, and
offers the potential for discovery and exploration. The series
considers the fragility of our relationship with the natural world,
and the temporal and finite nature of landscape as a human
construct.
Mature and ancient forest landscapes are interposed with
images of the Milky Way, Omega Centauri, the Norma Galaxy
and Embryonic stars in the Nebula NGC 346 captured by the
Hubble Telescope. Each image links forest landscapes with the
intangible and unknown universe creating a juxtaposition that
reflects my personal experiences of the forest; its physicality
and tactility set against a profound and fundamental otherness,
an alienation that separates us from a truly immersive
relationship with the natural world.
Ellie Davies (Born 1976) lives in Dorset and works in the woods and forests of Southern England. She gained her MA in Photography from London College of Communication in 2008.
She is represented by Crane Kalman Brighton Gallery in the UK, Patricia Armocida Gallery in Milan, Susan Spiritus Gallery in California, A.Galerie in Paris and Brussels and Brucie Collections in Kiev.
Crane Kalman Brighton Gallery showed her work at Photo London Digital from 7th - 18th October 2020.
Davies’ work is on show at 10 Gresham Street in the City of London until the end of January 2021.
Awards AWARDS
Fresh 2019 Klompching Gallery Awards Finalist
Moscow International Photo Awards 2019 1 Gold and 2 Bronze in Fine Art/Other/Portfolio
Fine Art Photography Awards 2019 Professional Category Conceptual Nominee
12th Pollux Awards Professional Fine Art Series Winner
12th Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2018 Professional Landscapes and Seascapes Winner
Urbanautica Institute Awards 2018 Nature, Environment and Perspectives Winner
International Photographer of the Year Awards 2017 Professional Fine Art Landscape Category 3rd Place
Magnum Photography Awards 2017 Fine Art Single Image Winner
The Environment Agency NATURE@WORK Photography Competition Finalist
Celeste Prize 2017 Digital Photography Finalist
AI-AP American Photography 33 2017 Selected Winner
PDN The Curator Awards 2016 Landscape Winner
Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition 2016 Aesthetica People’s Choice Award
Centre of Fine Art Photography Transitional Landscapes Exhibition 2016 Juror’s Honourable Mention
PX3 Paris Photo Prize 2015 Fine Art Landscape Gold Award
Critical Mass 2014 Finalist
Royal Photographic Society Competition and Annual Exhibition 2015 Selector’s Choice by Louise Clements
Bob Books June 2015 Book of the Month
Barcelona International Photography Awards 2015 Top 50 Photographers
Smithsonian Photo Contest 2015 Altered Images Category Winner
International Photography Awards 2014 Nature-Landscape Pro 1st Place
Art Gemini Awards Prize 2014 1st Place Winner
Fine Art Photography Awards 2014 Nominee in Fine Art
PH21 Gallery Inside Out Jurors Selection 2014 Honourable Mention
Moscow International Photo Awards 2014 two Honourable Mentions in Fine Art and Landscape
Kontinent Awards 2014 Fine Art Projects category First Place Winner
London International Creative Competition 2013 Winner
Critical Mass 2012 Finalist
Professional Women Photographers International Juried Exhibition 2012 Honourable Mention
ArtSlant Showcase 2011 Round 4 Juried Winner
Lens Culture Exposure Awards 2010 Honorable mention
