Artsville Feature: Ellen Golden’s Photography Reimagined

How do you feel with your toes squishing in the moss as you look up at the swaying trees? How do you feel as you watch sparkling water rippling and twirling in the breeze?

Photographer Ellen Golden captures the emotional layer of nature. She starts with a wide-angle photograph and uses Photoshop to dissect it pixel by pixel. Then, isolated pixels are manipulated to create a unique work of art. “Photoshop has changed the way I can create a print. Its mysteries are partly based on manipulating pixels, the tiny bits of emulation that hold the information when the photo is created,” she says of her creation process. “When I choose a photo to work on, it goes into Photoshop where those pixels release the creative basis for my new image.  It’s that information that I use with other tools to create textures, levels of transparency, and new backgrounds.”

The essence of the original photograph often stays, as the colors are blurred to mimic the effect of smeared pastels or bleeding watercolors. The mood of the image, however, changes with every edit, as Ellen skillfully guides the way. Her favorite part of the intuitive creative process is the unknown, as she never knows what details are hidden within the larger image, or the exact process she’ll take to get to the finished piece of art.

Ellen shows her giclée prints on cold press archival paper without glass to maintain their vibrancy. She treats the surface to protect the colors but suggests that the prints be hung away from direct sun. Find them at Artsville Collective at Marquee Asheville as a part of “A Walk in the Woods,” on display through October 30. Head to our event calendar for more information.

Ellen Golden

info@ellengoldennyc.com