ella morton - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL

This work is part of The Dissolving Landscape, a series of experimental analogue photographs that examine climate change in the landscapes of Canada and Nordic Europe. Northern areas are most severely affected by climate change and many of the communities I’ve visited have been witnessing its effects for decades already.

The project asks the question: what are we losing, in terms of our spiritual connection to the land, as the climate rapidly changes? I consider myself a poetic activist, articulating the profundity of our relationship with the land, and the emotional complexity of its change and loss as global warming unfolds.

The photographs are treated in the darkroom with mordançage, a black and white process that degrades the shadow areas of gelatin silver prints, lifting the emulsion off the paper to create unique textures. My goal in using this process is to capture the transcendent and fragile qualities of the landscape. The ways in which the images warp, melt, and degrade highlight the spiritual power of the natural environment and also lament its destruction as the planet warms. 

This work also addresses how the medium of photography itself is in transition. The proliferation of consumer photography through the emergence of smartphones and social media has challenged artists to use the medium in new ways. I aim to uncover how photographs can show more than a straightforward depiction of reality, and how the alchemy of analogue techniques can be reinvented in the digital age to tell deeper stories within images.

BIOGRAPHY

Ella Morton is an emerging photo-based artist and filmmaker from Vancouver who currently lives in Toronto. Her practice has brought her to projects across Canada, as well as in Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Finland. She uses experimental photographic processes to capture the sublime and fragile qualities of remote landscapes. 

She earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design (New York) in 2008 and an MFA from York University (Toronto) in 2015. She has exhibited her work internationally, including shows at Walnut Contemporary (Toronto), Foley Gallery (New York), Galérie AVE (Montréal), Viewpoint Gallery (Halifax), Photo Center Northwest (Seattle), The Alternator Centre (Kelowna) and Hanstholm Art Space (Denmark). She has also completed public art projects with Nocturne: Art at Night (Halifax), The Crying Room Projects (Vancouver), Roadside Attractions (Toronto), and Land-Shape (Denmark). She is currently working on an experimental Super 8mm film about Newfoundland.