Ellie Brown Photography and Artworks

These mixed media images are a continuation of my photographic project, Dad is Dizzy. They approach the changes that come with Alzheimer's disease with humor and love. The work looks at sundown hallucinations and the mental and emotional changes that occur with the disease. 

Unless otherwise noted: The rectangular images are 9x12" gel transfers with archival ink on paper

The square images are 12x12" gel transfers with archival ink on canvas 

A ten year project documenting my half-sisters into and through adolescence, focusing on their quest for identity.

These are images for a public art projectinstalled in three outdoor locations in Woonsocket, RI in April of 2016.The project was generously supported by RISCA and the Mayor of Woonsocket.

I photographed 100 residents of this town and had each person write the number of years they have lived here on their hands. They range from ages 2-92. http://www.insideoutproject.net/en/group-actions/usa-woonsocket-ri

BAG explores the duality between the way people characterize themselves in public and the
private contents of their handbags. This is depicted by a photograph of the subject against a
neutral background, in their everyday clothes, with their bag, purse, briefcase or any other
container they carry on a daily basis. The portrait of their public face is juxtaposed with the
person’s more private self, represented by the actual contents of their bag that the person
arranges as they wish them to be seen. BAG allows the viewer a glimpse into the private
world of another individual, revealing aspects of this person’s organizational habits, vanities,
occupations and preoccupations. This is a personal and voyeuristic look at the possessions a
person carries in their bag, which has been gifted to the viewer by the subject as a willing
participant.
It is the tension between the person and what they are attached to that constitutes the main
point of interest in BAG. What do people choose to hold onto? What are the materials they feel
they need to carry around with them? What is the correlation between how the subjects
choose to portray themselves in the world, and the story that is conveyed to us by their
intimate objects? Furthermore, what is the story of the objects themselves? Some are
sentimental, materially valuable, some are part of a current of shared objects that pass
unwittingly from person to person-pens, flyers, elastic bands. How many things are in our bag
now that we are unaware of, that have been passed to us and that we will pass on, never
cognizant of when they appeared and disappeared from our lives? What are the objects in
people’s bags that they are sufficiently attached to in the present to physically carry with them,
but will be lost or unaccounted for in a few months time?
BAG consists of a series of large-scale portraits taken in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New
York, Glasgow, MT, Urbana, IL and Iceland. Each portrait contains three separate elements.
Element 1: A photograph of the subject with their bag/purse/knapsack/briefcase. This image
will exhibit how the subject chooses to normally present him or herself to the outside world,
holding their bag paired with a photograph of the contents of the bag laid out as the subject
chooses his or her contents to be seen. Prints are 20x30”.
Element 2: The actual contents of their bag/purse/knapsack/briefcase gifted to us by the
subject, displayed in a clear plastic bag.
Element 3: A booklet listing all of the contents of everyone who participated in the project. The
idea is that the viewer will locate the list in the booklet and find the objects in the photograph or
in the plastic bag.
I am interested in portraits across age, socio-economic, gender, and race lines. I am interested
in why people carry what they carry and how that changes among different populations, how
objects are unwittingly passed between people; float in and out of people’s bag and of their
lives. This project takes an anthropological and sociological approach to the notion of exploring
peoples attachments and habits, as signified by the microcosm of what is in their BAG.

Camille Thoman conceived of the concept for BAG and Ellie Brown is the photographer/visual artist.
 

In 2005 when Ellie Brown turned 30, she spent a great deal of time considering the impact of her history on her current life. During this period of introspection, it became clear that her lovers and boyfriends where a very large part in shaping who she had become as an adult female.  It was at this point she decided to make an altered book for each lover in homage or remembrance of their time together.  The books did not judge whether the experience with the man was positive or negative, but rather examined memories and impressions of their time together. The altered books are glued shut, only revealing the front cover and the altered interior.  Imagery and symbols in the books are a language between Ellie and the man who the book was made for.  The books are not made to make fun or embarrass the men but truly examine memories from their experience together, whether it was five years or one night.  Most men responded positively to the project with the exception of one ex-boyfriend who responded ‘I am married and do not care to read this book’.  Ellie was unable to locate many of the men to send them a digital copy of their book but found it even more difficult to contact some men who she had rather not speak to again. She saw all of the connected emotions as part of the process of the project. As a whole, the books represent an important part of Ellie’s autobiography and a larger social inquiry into what separates love, sex and romance for a contemporary woman.

From Ulsan, South Korea 2008

Found student diaries. My inability to read these felt very similar to my outsider status as a visiting professor in Korea, unable to understand language and connect to people.