Ellen Jantzen

Photographer and Photo based artist Ellen Jantzen was so kind to let me have a sneak peak of her newest series Disturbing The Sprits.

I was thrilled about her new body of work and asked her if I am allowed to share it on the Truth Of Beauty.

Here is what Ellen wrote about Disturbing The Spirits:


As human actions impact the natural environment, can artists heal nature? Does art bring “special powers” to the table? If so, what are they? What is ‘art’? What is ‘nature’? What needs healing?

This series deals with both reality and time (past/present/future) and my growing attachment to the healing powers of the natural environment.
Trees teach us about belonging; they remind us that life doesn’t need permission to prevail. Trees are sanctuaries. If we listen closely, we can learn the ancient law of life. They are seen as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection.They have played a prominent role in many folktales and legends and have been given deep and sacred meanings.
But, a tree’s longevity can lull us into a false sense of immortality.
It is this very impermanence that I long to understand through my photographic explorations. There is an ineffable natural beauty.... too great to be expressed or de- scribed in words.
In “Disturbing the Spirits” I am using imagery to convey my feelings about the state of nature, the nature of trees, and how to express their connection to past, present and future. By obscuring a portion of the image through a veil, I strive to heighten the remaining reality through discovery and reflection.

Disturbing The Spirits will be live on Ellen's website very soon.

In the meantime enjoy some of the new images here.

Ellen Jantzen is also part of my project Two Way Lens - Interviews with contemporary photographers.

Her interview can be found here.

Promise Of Spring

 Proximity

 Let The Others Follow

 Into The Unknown

 Toward Profusion

 Assurance

After Hours


© copyright all images Ellen Jantzen, all rights reserved

Two Way Lens and Ellen Jantzen

Two Way Lens proudly presents Ellen Jantzen.

I am very happy and excited that Ellen Jantzen joined the amazing line up of outstanding photographers on Two Way Lens - Interviews with contemporary photographers.

Ellen Jantzen is a photographer and artist from St.Lois, Missouri and Los Angeles. Her work is included in many private and public collections and has been exhibited internationally. 2011 was just her year, she has won numerous awards, her work has been reviewed by international photography, art and design magazines and she got represented by a contemporary art gallery.

Ellen Jantzen's work is outstanding and unique. She combines two art forms, photography and digital art and creates images full of mystery and beauty.

Her most recent series is called Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

This is what Ellen writes about this series:

How does one experience loss? What does loss look like?

Catastrophic losses usually have a face; think war photos, photos from the World Trade Center, crashes of various sorts but I am interested in personal loss.

I have always been interested in alternate states of reality, the meaning of dreams, what becomes of our spirits after death (and before birth). We all deal with "loss" in some form, loss of friends, home, youth, and the ultimate loss, loss of life. Death transforms us; reality shifts, but to what?

I am intrigued with how a person adapts to losses in their lives; how they are absorbed by events and changed; how they experience loss. Do dreams influence the experience of loss? Are dreams real? I set about to address these issues through a photographic photosynthesis in this body of work; choosing photography as the medium to help me reveal reality while at the same time transform that reality to reflect loss.

In these images, I have placed my husband, Michael in various environments where a loss of some sort has recently occurred. Some of the losses were very specific and personal and some were of a general, universal nature reflected in an inner state of anguish and eventual acceptance.

More of Ellen's work can be found on her website

The interview with Two Way Lens can be found here.

Inheritance, from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

from the series Losing Reality; Reality of Loss

© copyright al images Ellen Jantzen

Ellen Jantzen

Ellen Jantzen was recently a guest at a Christmas party in a nursing home in Breese, Illinois.

The photos she has shot there are so beautiful and done with so much respect and love for the people who live there. She created a slide show of this work.

Please follow the link here to see the photographs.

© copyright all images Ellen Jantzen

Ellen Jantzen

Ellen Jantzen's new book Alternate Realities has just been released by Sunbury Press and is available in bookshops and online, here and here

The book contains three of Ellen's latest series: Reality of Place, Masking Reality and Escaping Reality.

Ellen Jantzen about her work:

I am intrigued with parallel universes, space / time warps and other manifestations of altered, alternative realities. I am intrigued with the exterior / visible aspects of reality and how it manifests the interior, the hidden / unknown realm. In each of my series, I begin by taking a digital photograph of a staged assemblage of a variety of objects, either man-made or of a natural nature; the set-ups are essentially ephemeral "sculptures", I then alter the images using various drawing and photography software programs until I've achieved my particular goal with the piece under development. Each series contains it's own set of criteria.

Her work is beautiful, mysterious, unique and as if it is not from this world. She really creates realities far from our imagination.

Please visit Ellen's website to see more of her wonderful work.

The images below are from the three series who are included in the new book.

Ellen Jantzen, Alternate Realities, published by Sunbury Press

Fragmentary Evidence, from the series Reality of Place

Echo, from the series Reality of Place

Tor, from the series Reality of Place

Foretoken, from the series Masking reality

Mage, from the series Masking Reality

Subsuming Identity, from the series Masking Reality

Migration, from the series Escaping Reality

Ghost Whisper, from the series Escaping Reality

Agitation, from the series Escaping Reality

© copyright all images Ellen Jantzen