Ellie Davies

Smoke and Mirrors 7, 2010 Smoke and Mirrors This work explores the idea that notions of beauty and our understanding of landscape are constructed, and in doing so they subvert the notion of beauty as truth, and reference wider issues of authenticity within photography. The intention is to request a more personal response to the landscape, an experience embedded in memory, history, storytelling and folk law to engage the viewer in a dialogue with the image and in a sense of the fam

ABOUT WORK

I have been working in UK forests for the past four years, making a number of bodies of work which explore the complex interrelationship between the landscape and the individual. Our understanding of landscape can be seen as a construction in which layers of meaning that reflect our own cultural preoccupations and anxieties obscure the reality of the land, veiling it, and transforming the natural world into an idealization.

UK forests have been shaped by human processes over thousands of years and include ancient woodlands and timber plantations. As such, the forest represents the confluence of nature and culture, of natural landscape and human activity. Forests are potent symbols in folklore, fairy tale and myth, places of enchantment and magic as well as of danger and mystery. In recent cultural history they have come to be associated with psychological states relating to the unconscious.

Against this cultural backdrop my work explores the fabricated nature of landscape by making a variety of temporary and non-invasive interventions in the forest, which place the viewer in the gap between reality and fantasy. Creating this space encourages the viewer to re-evaluate the way in which their relationship with the landscape is formed, and the extent to which it is a product of cultural heritage or personal experience.

The forest becomes a studio, forming a backdrop to contextualize the work, so that each piece draws on its location, a golden tree introduced into a thicket shimmers in the darkness, painted paths snake through the undergrowth, and strands of wool are woven between trees mirroring colours and formal elements within the space.

These altered landscapes operate on a number of levels. They are a reflection of my personal relationship with the forest, a meditation on universal themes relating to the psyche, and call into question the concept of landscape as a social and cultural construct.

CAREER

Fine Art Photographer

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ALSO FEATURED IN

Website: www.elliedavies.co.uk
LPA Portfolio

AWARDS

AWARDS


2012

Professional Women Photographers International Juried Exhibition: Honourable Mention

2011

ArtSlant Showcase Juried Winner, Round 4. 2011

2010

Lens Culture International Exposure Awards: Honourable Mention
Exeter Phoenix Audience Choice Award
PX3 Paris Photo Prize – 1st Prize Winner Fine Art Landscape
International Photography Awards: 1st Place Nature-Landscape Pro Award
LPA Landscape Awards 2010: Commended
ArtSlant Showcase Juried Winner 2010

2009

The Charmian Adams Award
New Brewery Arts Open Public Choice Award
International Photography Awards 2009 - Official Selection Honourable Mention
PX3 Paris Photo Prize – Fine Art Series Honourable Mention

2008

Critical Mass Finalist 2008
New York Photo Awards: Honourable Mention - Personal Fine Art Series
PX3 Paris Photo Prize - 3 Fine Art Honourable Mentions

EDUCATION

2008 MA Photography, London College of Communication

COLLEGE

London College of Communication

EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS


2012

Solo Exhibition at Richard Young Gallery, W8, Sept/Oct 2012

2011

Come with Me – New Landscape by Ellie Davies, Print House Gallery, London, E8, 21st Oct – 27th Nov
Ellie Davies: New Landscape at LBi - Atlantis Building, 146 Brick Lane, E1, 7th Sept – 14th Oct
Smoke and Mirrors: Solo Exhibition - 10GS, London, W1, 12th May – 5th Sept
Ellie Davies at Bayeux Imaging - Newman Street, London, W1 5th May – 5th June
Ellie Davies Solo Exhibition - Brucie Collections, Artema St, 55-b, Kiev, Ukraine, 16th March – 2nd May


GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2012

Professional Women Photographers Online Exhibition: March 1st – August 31st
Open To Interpretation: Intimate Landscape
• Gordon Parks Gallery, St Paul, Minneapolis, November 2012 (dates to be confirmed)
• Newspace Center for Photography, later 2012 (dates to be confirmed)

2011

Nine-Point Perspective: Ways of Seeing, Hotshoe Gallery, 29-31 Saffron Hill, London
The Edge Sculpture Trail Installation – Heathercombe, Dartmoor, Devon
Symbiosis, Hoxton Art Projects, 64 Charlotte Road, E2
Tallinn 15th Print Triennial, Tallinn – Kumu Museum of Modern Art, Estonia
Lens Culture International Exposure Awards: 31 Contemporary Photographers:
• Spιos Gallery, 7 rue Jules Vallθs, 75011 Paris
• VII Dumbo, 28 Jay Street, New York 11201
• Gallery 291, 291 Geary Street, San Francisco CA94102
Salon Photo Open, Matt Roberts Gallery, Vyner Street, London

2010

Light and Landscape, The New Forest Gallery
LIP 22ndAnnual Exhibition, Proud Central, London
Exeter Contemporary Open 2010, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter 16
Foto8 Summer Show, Host Gallery, London
Sight, Unseen, Photofusion, London, SW9

2009

ArtSway Open 09, ArtSway Gallery, Sway, New Forest
Photomonth Open 09, Old Truman Brewery, London
Salon 09, Four Corners Gallery, London
Out of Space, Photospace Gallery, 530 Commercial Road, London
‘I Always Knew You’d Come Back..’ East End Arts Club, London
Crossings, New Brewery Arts, Cirencester
Cumulus iPod and Screen Exhibit, O2 Arena, London
New Landscape, Crane Kalman Gallery, Brighton
Beautiful Landscapes, 3 Bedfordbury Gallery, London
Format Photo Festival 09, ‘I always knew you'd come back..’, Derby
Hanging On, Oblong Gallery, London

PUBLICATIONS

PUBLICATIONS/ ONLINE – Selection

Open To Interpretation: Intimate Landscapes – Published October 2012
Fuzion Magazine, Issue 5, Spring 2012
Photo+ Magazine, South Korea, Issue 24, April 2012
Behind the Image By Natasha Caruana and Anna Fox. AVA Press: Distributed by Thames and Hudson
Landscape Stories Magazine February/March 2012
GLOSS Magazine, Brazil, January 2012, p.12
Art Ukraine Online Magazine: http://www.artukraine.com.ua/articles/392.html
Conscientious: http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2011/04/ellie_davies/
Urbanautica Blog: http://www.urbanautica.com/post/11102504274/ellie-davies
Tree Magazine Photo Essay by Chris Stocks – Autumn/Winter 2011
Lens Culture – Artist Feature 2010: http://www.lensculture.com/davies.html
Le Monde Magazine, 23rd Oct 2011
Love Is The Law
http://loveisthelawmagazine.tumblr.com/post/6835818768/smoke-and-mirrors-by-ellie-davies-this-work#notes
London Independent Photography Selected Artist Showcase
http://www.londonphotography.org.uk/showcase/2009/08/ellie-davies/
Evolver Magazine, October 2010
Shutterspark: http://shutter-spark.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-with-ellie-davies.html
Biuletyn Fotograficzny Magazine, (London Photomonth), Poland, Nov 09
New York Photo Awards Publication 2009


COLLECTIONS
Held in Private collections in the UK, the US, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.


PUBLIC TALKS
2010
Sight, Unseen, Photofusion Gallery, London
- In conversation with Lucy Soutter, 28.05.10
In Site, In Site Gallery, Brighton
- In conversation with Graham Hulme, 21.10.10