Эллен Янцен

Disturbing the Spirits

source: beautifuldecay

Ellen Jantzen‘s newest photoseries, Disturbing The Spirits, explores the photographers recent interest in the healing power of nature. In her series’ statement, the St. Louis-born photographer questions, “As human actions impact the natural environment, can artists heal nature? Does art bring “special powers” to the table? If so, what are they? What is ‘art’? What is ‘nature’? What needs healing?”
Focusing on the cameras ability to record fleeting elements of natural elements, Jantzen hopes to bring attention and connection to our environment, often represented in the series by trees. The artist explains, “In “Disturbing the Spirits” I am using imagery to convey my feelings about the state of nature, the nature of trees, and how to express their connection to past, present and future.” The added element of digital manipulation, pulling the image into sheets of linear veils both obscures the focus, yet creates an alluring, gossamer magnetism. Jantzen continues, “By obscuring a portion of the image through a veil, I strive to heighten the remaining reality through discovery and reflection.” The work is made more convincing by using these digital aftereffects, bringing attention to the necessary connection (and beauty) possible when both human and nature coexist.
Although many of the photos present human-altered versions of bucolic landscapes, forests and watery reflections, Jantzen’s work does not seem to say that the natural world is perfection. Rather, the images she depicts are impermanent, and simply reconnecting with nature is not a remedy to our human condition. Instead, the transience (if respected and protected) is the beauty, and will continue to regenerate forever if allowed. Jantzen acknowledges this, stating “(trees) are seen as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection….a tree’s longevity can lull us into a false sense of immortality. It is this very impermanence that I long to understand through my photographic explorations. There is an ineffable natural beauty…. too great to be expressed or described in words.“
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source: sculpture
I was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri, USA
In 1992, I Graduated Summa Cum Laude from FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising), Los Angeles California I have a varied background; originally my emphasis was on graphic arts and I obtained my first college degree in this field. I became disillusioned with the basic nature of art for advertising sake and dropped out to become an organic gardener and cheese-maker. I raised goats also. But this became unfulfilling as I really longed for creative outlets and interactions. I then went back to college and got my second degree in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California. I became quite fascinated with using fabrics in innovative ways which led me to work for several major corporations designing clothing concepts and products. I also briefly taught product design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. Alas, I again became disillusioned with the corporate/academic climate and longed for something more creative. I have been making my current body of work with digitally manipulated photography for over ten years now and find great satisfaction and excitement each day as I work. This is the perfect marriage of two dimensional graphic sensibilities and my need to create “things”. Because I create ephemeral assemblages to use in my photography, my desire to work three dimensionally is fulfilled also.
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source: ragazinecc
The web is filled with a wealth of photographic material, some charming, some ‘anyone could do’, some that takes you by the shoulders and shakes you awake, some that puts you to sleep. Ellen Jantzen’s photographs call you back, like the memory of an event you can’t shake — images that cling, bringing to mind past events, and casting light on an unknown and mysterious future. Some reviewers speak of her work as an artistic exploration of quantum mechanics; one-hundred years ago her work would have been proof enough that spirits exist. Whatever your experience of Jantzen’s parallel universe, we trust you’ll take it with you.
I have always been interested in alternate states of reality, but looking over my last few series, those initiated and completed since moving to the Midwest from California, I see that I am also dealing with “loss” in some form; loss of friends, home, youth, and the ultimate loss, loss of life. Death transforms us; reality shifts, but to what?
I am intrigued with how a person adapts to losses in their lives — how they are absorbed by events and changed. How does one experience loss? Catastrophic losses usually have a face; think war photos, photos from the World Trade Center, crashes of various sorts; but I am interested in personal loss. What does loss look like?
I set about to address these issues through a photographic photosynthesis in this body of work — choosing photography as the medium to help me reveal, and at the same time enshroud, truths.
In this work, I have placed my husband (Michael) in various environments where a loss of some sort has recently occurred. One of these locations is the interior of a house designed by Michael and built by both of us for his mother about 30 years ago. The structure has gone through a radical evolution from its contemporary inception to being filled with antiques. Recently this home was sold, as mother was moved to an assisted living home. Clearing 30 years of accumulation to reveal the naked interior was transformative. To ultimately see a new family inhabiting the space has left Michael with contradictory feelings of loss and resurrection.
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source: fovixru

Беспокойство духов вместе с фотографом Ellen Jantzen
В своём новом фотопроекте Disturbing the Spirit (Беспокоя духов)фотограф Эллен Янцен (Ellen Jantzen) показывает нам красоту природы, передавая свои чувства и пытаясь увидеть новые реальности с помощью синтеза фотографии и цифровой обработки. Снимая деревья «не в фокусе» и, затем делая соответствующую цифровую обработку (часть картины она оставляет в первозданном виде, всё остальное – размывает), у Эллен в результате получаются шикарные призрачные изображения. И, может быть, если взглянуть немного глубже, где-то далеко можно увидеть миллионы других миров.