Long Beach Peninsula, Washington
pinhole photographs; archival digital prints
13″ x 13″
Ellen spent a month in 2021 as an artist in resident at Willapa Bay AIR. Exploring the Long Beach Peninsula and environs by foot and by car, she captured long exposures on expired medium format film.with her Zero Image pinhole camera.
In her work, Ellen focuses on the beauty and fragility of the landscape, drawing attention to the Anthropocene – the threat of climate change–and to our relationship to the earth. Each place embodies its history, either through natural changes over time or as the result of human intervention. These photographs could have been made decades ago or tomorrow, reflecting a quietude like a whisper out of time. The pinhole camera renders the scenes with soft focus and a limitless depth of field, emphasizing the passage of time.
The Long Beach Peninsula is a diverse ecosystem flanked by the Pacific Ocean on the west and, a mile east, the rich estuary of Willapa Bay. Home to one of the most productive oyster beds in the U.S., the bay’s cultivation of oysters has been emblematic of the area for over 150 years To the south of the Peninsula at the mouth of the Columbia River is Cape Disappointment, the western most destination of Lewis and Clark. Just across the border to Oregon, near Astoria is the famous Peter Iredale Shipwreck.
