We were lucky to catch up with Ellen Friedlander recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ellen, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
That’s a great question. As a late bloomer, I’ve thought about this a lot. It took me a long time to understand, listen and hold space for my creativity. I was busy raising children, moving around, living abroad, working on a marriage, and it all literally took me out of the creative sphere. However, I needed to take photographs and be creative and I found that having my camera with me all the time helped keep my passion alive. I decided my best course of action during these busy and tumultuous years was to focus on my technical abilities. I listened to my inner voice to stay the course. I sought out any and all opportunities to make photographs for other people and to document my family. I have learned from this journey to listen. To not take for granted when ideas come and allow them to transcend from the heart to the hand. Making photographs, even horribly bad ones, helped me stay emotionally stable.
The other aspect that I craved and knew I needed was to find my creative community. This only just happened upon moving to LA in 2018 when I met other photographers in workshops and at shows and started to develop my own artistic community. I have always been curious and interested in other artists and their work, so moving to Los Angeles, a city with so many artists, museums, and art shows made it easy to expand my circle. There is great vitality in sharing others’ art and their journeys. This is inspiring and keeps my creativity invigorated.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I was born in Utica, New York. And grew up in both Utica and Old Forge which is an even tinier mountain town at the threshold of the Adirondack Mountains. I grew up with family all around me and my paternal grandparents were an integral part of my childhood. My grandmother was an amazing cook and loved sharing our Friday Night dinners with extended family members. All of whom were characters in their own right and I enjoyed their eccentricity. My Father loved and collected art, my Mother designed and created her own clothes, and my grandfather took up cartooning in his 70’s. At 16 my father gave me my first 35 mm camera. I fell hard for the medium and looked at it as a means that would help me find my way out of my small town. In those early years I used my camera to document every aspect of my life and those around me. As I write, I imagine that my love of portraiture stems from my family allowing me to point my camera at them, at whim, and attempt to capture their spirit.
Upon graduating from College, I packed up my car and moved to Washington, DC, where I made the commitment to seek out a photographer to work for. I did my research and learned about Peter Garfield who was known for his Washingtonian Magazine Covers. It took cold calling him nearly every week for 6 months to get him to give me a chance. This first job was an eye opening opportunity for me. I was in my early 20’s and I was at a crossroad. I decided then and there at the age of 23, that I wanted to have a family and that I would work on my photographic skills along the way. Flash forward a decade and I was married, working with a commercial photographer and raising a family in Hong Kong (1995-2010). It was here that I came to have a commitment to a multiple point of view: drawn to the street, landscape, documentary photography, and portraiture.
In 2010, my son was a rising junior and passionate about playing college tennis. His commitment to the sport propelled us to make the move from Hong Kong to Irvine, California. Here I found myself on my own, navigating a new country with 2 children, a dog, middle school, online HS, full time tennis, plus the breakup of my marriage. It was challenging. However, when my son’s college tennis dreams were realized and my daughter was in high school, I decided to focus all my free time on my work. I realized that I needed a mentor and was introduced to photographer James Friedman. I worked with Jim for nearly 6 months, where he helped me to understand the complexities of making a photograph. From there I took to the road and started to take other workshops with Magnum and fine art photographers. Eventually finding my way to LACP (Los Angeles Center of Photography) and Aline Smithson’s The Next Workshop, which introduced me to all of the necessary components one needs in order to be a fine art photographer. It was the beginning of the journey that I am now on.
Since 2020, I have been developing a niche within portrait photography using a digital pinhole lens. This new style developed one day when I decided to turn the camera upon myself and play with the pinhole lens. I have taken to experimenting with this lens for several years by acting upon the creative flow that has pushed me to explore and process many complex emotional states using it. In 2022, I began to open up my studio to the public and have begun honing this portrait style that is less about looking “perfect,” and more about capturing a person’s spirit. This winter, I had six pinhole portraits receive an Honorable Mention in the Professional category in the 19th Annual Pollux Award at FotoNostrum, Barcelona. It was thrilling to see my pinhole portraits on the gallery wall and I am very excited to see where my creative flow may take me next.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I would define the qualities that have most impacted my creative journey as my unrelenting passion for the photographic medium, vulnerability, and an eagerness to have a deep connection with my artistic community. I believe that every artist has a unique spirit that propels them forward, as we must be willing to fail and experiment in order to grow. It has taken me forty years to feel technically proficient enough to allow personal expression to come through my work. While I had an unrelenting passion for the medium, it has taken diligence to not become disillusioned and frustrated with myself as new skills are constantly needed. In today’s world, the creative space is overly crowded and it takes a lot to stay focused, positive, and believe that the work you are putting out will resonate. My advice to all budding and established creatives is to remember that even though we have our personal practices, we are all a part of a larger community. It is so important to stay connected to a wider network of artists and non-artists that help lift up and inform your practice. Community is everywhere and everyone. We are all a reflection of each other so the more you lift up others, the more support will come back to you.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Collaborations are so important and in my personal practice I often reach out to friends and colleagues when working on new ideas. At present, I am collaborating with friends on a pinhole project using family heirlooms. In addition to collaborating in my own practice, I am grateful to be a part of Pasadena Photography Arts (PPA), which I am Co-Director of. PPA is a small group of working artists who are dedicated to promoting diverse photography projects by established and emerging photographers worldwide through a series of virtual and live events. We host and curate Open Show calls: https://www.pasadenaphotographyarts.org/ and are always looking for new ideas for our FORUM events, and welcome proposals for panel discussions.
That little girl from Utica, NY is eternally grateful to have landed here in Los Angeles at such a booming time for the arts and to be a part of the Los Angeles creative community. XO
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ellenfriedlanderphotography.com/
- Instagram: @emfphoto59
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellen.m.friedlander
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ellenfriedlander8859?si=riV-Imlrvg6tLmUK
Image Credits
©Ellen Friedlander
