Ellen Carey

Ellen Carey is an American artist known for conceptual photography that explores non-traditional approaches involving process, exposure and paper.

Abstraction in photography and lens-based art presents a contradiction in terms, and minimalism presents a further oxymoron. Well developed in the 20th century in other areas — Abstract Expressionism, Minimal, Conceptual Art — abstraction and minimalism in lens-based art are emerging even as the first decade in the 21st century closed. It is here, in the early stages of modern and contemporary art with its roots in photography, that my work has a context. These practices are largely based in America and the tenets of their legacy are incorporated into my art practice. The American invention of Polaroid 20 X 24 (circa 1980) complements these breakthroughs in visual thinking with my discovery of the Pull in 1996, producing an abstract and minimal image that is simultaneously photograph and process; it fits under my umbrella concept Photography Degree Zero. The photogram, historically “drawing with light,” was discovered by the British inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877); it continues under my darkroom practice Struck by Light, often partnered with color. The Victorian, Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was the first woman practitioner (cameraless) and the first woman to practice color (cyanotype); their legacies move forward in my work.