Absent Presence

David Ellingsen’s photographs are self-portraits of a man intimately relating to his natural world. The vulnerability of the figure, and the subtly supernatural and mythic elements, illustrate humankind’s inviolable connection to the natural world; a connection that is obfuscated by modern values. Ellingsen’s work serves as a potent reminder of that connection at a time when anthropogenic devastation of the planet is a catastrophic threat. Where that loss of connection manifests as a sense of humankind’s dominion over nature, Ellingsen’s work acts as a solvent, unraveling the mantle of detachment by modeling his own transformational process.