MAGNUM FLEUR interview by Cindy Marks
If getting outside in the summer means getting into the flower garden for you, then chances are you also appreciate beautiful floral photography. I love magazine spreads of garden shows and abundant cottage-style yards for all the bursting colors, textures and variety. And that’s one way of enjoying flowers in artwork - celebrating the lushness and abundance of the season. However, with Ellison Goodall Bishop, prepare for a different experience: a single flower in a quiet moment, a vast space and intensely personal insight.
Ellison’s daughter, Liza, a superb photographer in her own right, had this to say about what inspired her mom to pick up the camera: “My mother started photography when my brother and I were babies. Photography was a way for her to express a creative side while taking care of us at home and watching us grow. Later, she hooked up with some area photographers/friends and photography became a passion for her. She’s been published in newspapers and magazines, and even though my mom never called herself a professional photographer, she maintained a dedication to her work that exceeded amateur enthusiasm. When she put the camera down several years ago, it was to watch, again; this time while my brother and I took up photography.” Since that statement, made prior to a 2008 gallery show at Spring Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia, Ellison has
picked up her camera once again, embraced digital photography and begun exploring flowers with an increasingly intimate lens.
Ellison told a wonderful tale of her transition from children to flowers. “It was almost an out-of-body experience.” It was a lazy warm day and Ellison was on an exercise machine looking out windows to her backyard. Tere was a bank of plantings near the back, in full high summer bloom. Musing on the intensity of the colors and energy, she had a sudden idea. “I had a drop cloth, from earlier photo sessions. I ran to get it and took it outside, spreading it on terrace. I went back in, gathered up my kids [used to the occasional posing for mom, no doubt], and just started covering them with flowers.” For her, it felt like a very natural transition.
Chatting about the differences between portraits and still photography, Ellison shows her empathy with her subject matter. “With portraiture” she says, hands gesturing about her face, “you are expanding and illuminating character traits. Sharing them with the audience.” Tis is part and parcel of how she sees her flower subjects. “I’m trying to highlight things like vulnerability or a ‘come hither’ attractiveness or even an angry demeanor. How you shoot can either enhance that or even hide it all together.”
“Simple is how I photograph. Natural light and flowers at hand. Full frame, no
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