Elaine Ellman loves the camera's ability to catch life on the fly while recording hard evidence. It was in the darkroom, and now digitally, where she finds the captured image's balance. Elaine had the fabulous luck to work for years with the great mentor, Lisette Model, after completing study in social science. Her training is evident in her visual ideas that let the photographs tell a story and in her ability to "catch" the point quickly. Absorbing Model's dicta such as, "the subject tells you how it should be photographed," Elaine follows the lead of subjects in her assignments ranging from fashion, portraiture, children, interior design to animals. In her words: " I enter a mysterious world when photographing so, like a blind person feeling objects to find her path, I use form as my guardrail. " Her sociopolitical interests continued in graduate work and volunteering; through the International Rescue Committee she is currently working with displaced people. The portfolio on this site, Brick Refuge, is part of that work.
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