David Ellis
David Ellis is a documentary/fine arts photographer/writer based in Northern California. His work has appeared in exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York, numerous international print and online publications, competitions, and several ad campaigns. Most recently, his work was featured in Outdoor Photographer. He is a member of the SanDisk Extreme Team.
Ellis began his journey in photojournalism as a writer/photographer for automotive publications, where learned the power of visual storytelling and of the immediacy of the photographic moment. His mantra, “See it, shoot it,” has been the driving force of his work since he first picked up a camera. An endless curiosity about the human condition and a strong background in design and performing arts has helped him create work that bridges fine art, travel, street, sports, and conceptual photography.
Artist’s Statement
This series, Lobospheres: The Lost Souls of Point Lobos is a celebration, an elegy, and a cautionary tale. An ongoing project now well into its second decade, Lobospheres started out as an accidental discovery. Photographing iconic locations like Yosemite, Santa Fe and Point Lobos can be intimidating because it puts you face-to-face with legends, in this case generations of the Weston family. Instead of pointing the camera toward the area’s signature vistas and forests, I aimed right at my feet and let my reflexive pareidolia take flight. As scrambled over the slick granite and sandstone, a single mythical creature revealed itself from a slash of tar. Another popped up from gashes in the rock. Soon, hundreds emerged as a chorus of expressive faces, figures, and metaphoric micro-landscapes. It was impossible for me to “unsee” them. I’ve returned to Weston Beach dozens of times over the past 20 years, each time different, each time capturing fresh new images.
However, it wasn’t until I immersed myself in the stark realities of climate change that I realized that Lobospheres is more than an art project. It is an archive that captures my reverence for its sheer beauty, as well as preserving and documenting an extraordinary landmark that has an expiration date. Climatologists are projecting a seven-foot sea level rise in Northern California by the end of the century, which will likely decimate Weston Beach and dramatically alter Point Lobos as we know it. Lobospheres is a kind of visual synecdoche–parts standing for the whole. It reminds us of what we take for granted and rarely take the time to see or appreciate.
For more, please visit www.daellisphoto.com/55e9a9218e-lobospheres
