Ellen (Ellie) Smith
Ellen (Ellie) Smith
PhotoForum Member Portfolio, 2009
Brought up and educated in Wellington, I now live in a small coastal community at the head of Whangarei harbour with my partner Laurence Berry and two children Billie and Thomas.
For the past few years my photographic work has been made around and about the domestics of having young children. I have become especially interested in the idealisation of childhood through photography - we only photograph the nice things, the public moments, the rites of passage, the first day of school, kids smilingly playing with cousins at the beach picnic, blowing out birthday candles...and as we look back through old photos their photographic construction of perfection slowly subverts and replaces our own personal memories.
As I was watching and photographing my children for this series of work I became fascinated with the internalised nature of much of their experience and I re-remembered those long, luxurious, alone, private moments that seemed to stretch endlessly.
Other work. I am also involved with art projects where communities make/exhibit photographs of themselves (The Heads Proposal), working commercially as a photographer of exhibitions/artwork and tutoring photography part time at NorthTec.
Ellen (Ellie) Smith
ellie@ellensmith.co.nz
