Ellen Smith
'This is love that is learning how to let go'
Photospace Gallery, 7th-24th November 2014

Artist's statement
“ ‘Hubb’ is love, ‘ishq’ is love that entwines two people together, ‘shaghaf’ is love that nests in the chambers of the heart, ‘hayam’ is love that wanders the earth, ‘teeth’ is love in which you loose yourself, ‘walah’ is love that carries sorrow within it, ‘sababah’ is love that exudes from your pores, ‘hawa’ is love that shares its name with ‘air’ and with ‘falling’, ‘gharam’ is love that is willing to pay the price…” 
                                                                                   Ahadf Soueif (1)

Photo: Ellie Smith

…and this is a love that is learning how to let go.

How to photograph this?  I am blinded by cliché images of love - fleshy movie romance, carefully constructed wedding albums, smiling elderly couples, semi-naked newborns.

So I stop photographing digitally and bring out my film camera.  No colour, no chance to instantly check the back screen and delete if an image does not match my initial visual expectations.  My film camera will safely hide away and save any image I make and I will not be able to see it for days, until I am in my studio again and have a chance to understand a bit more.  This is a process that will allow me to think and feel as much as I see.  It will turn off the snapshot colour and let me focus past the surface.  It leaves me time to wonder what will happen next or realise what has just gone by.

To photograph someone I love is an intimate act.  I am close.  Light for my camera touches an elbow, an exposed ear, my father’s fingers, hair resting on a shoulder or flying in the breeze.  A daughter is walking away, held by a hair thin thread, connected by the lightest touch.

(1) Ahadf Soueif ‘The Map of Love’ 1999 Bloomsbury UK

Ellen Smith - bio

Ellie lives in Northland, New Zealand. She has exhibited at Photospace Gallery regularly since her 2006 show 'Icarus'. She has curated, published, and exhibited her own work and others since 1998, and has an MFA degree from RMIT, Melbourne, 2003. See Document below for full info.

Photo: Ellen Smith

Photo: Ellen Smith

Photo: Ellen Smith