David Ellingsen

David Ellingsen is a Canadian photographer creating images of site-specific installations, landscapes and object studies that speak to the relationship between humans and the natural world. Across his varied projects Ellingsen acts as both archivist and surrealist using hybrids of traditional documentary methods, staged constructions, and photographic process.

Ellingsen began his career as a freelance assignment photographer with clients that included the New York Times Magazine, DDB, Mens Journal, CBC Radio Canada, Telus and MTV/Nickelodeon. Simultaneously, he was exhibiting personal work within public and private galleries in Canada, the USA, and Asia and appearing as an educator at post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Ellingsen continued this hybrid path for 12 years and then, in 2013, focused fully on his artistic practice.

Ellingsen's photographs have been exhibited around the world and are part of the permanent collections of the Chinese Museum of Photography, South Korea's Datz Museum of Art and Canada's Beaty Biodiversity Museum. They have been shortlisted for Photolucida's Critical Mass Book Award, awarded First Place at the Prix de la Photographie Paris and the International Photography Awards in the USA.

Ellingsen lives and makes his work in Canada's Pacific Northwest, moving between Victoria and the remote island of Cortes where he was raised.