John Ellsworth Photography: Times of Northport article

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Written by Elise Pearlman and published in

The Times of Northport

NORTHPORT • EAST NORTHPORT • FORT SALONGA WEST
ASHAROKEN • EASTON'S NECK • CENTERPORT

July 26, 2007
Arts and Lifestyles section



	Romancing the sea with John Ellsworth
	Local fine art photographer's images celebrate the wonders of our watery world

	Photo by Alan Pearlman Photographer John Ellsworth BY ELISE PEARLMAN leisure@tbrnewspapers.com At the turn of the century, in a masterful stroke of his pen, British poet John Masefield wrote eloquently of yearning to return to the sea, deeming "the call of the running tide" and the promise of adventure irresistbible. It was what Masefield termed "sea fever" and fine art photographer John Ellsworth would be the first to admit that he was equally smitten. For over 30 years, Ellsworth, an avid sailor and Northport resident, has been responding to the siren's song by creating photographs that celebrate the sea and its worthy vessels. Having studied visual communication and aesthetics at Queens College, Teacher's College of Columbia Univeristy and New York's International Center of Photography, Ellsworth further honed his skills in workshops with noted outdoor photographers. Ellsworth said that he was most influenced by having studied the work and writings of internationally renowned outdoor photographer Galen Rowell who died tragically in a small airplane crash in 2002. "I visited Galen Rowell's gallery when it was in Emeryville, California and attended one of his workshops. Galen was an adventurer, a mountain climber, who visited Tibet, the Himalayas and Antartica," Ellsworth said, adding that the spirituality and sheer simplicity of Rowell's images made his heart beat faster. Timelessness and tranquility can also be said to imbue Ellsworth's work. Describing himself as "pre-visualist" as opposed to a "post-visualist," Ellsworth strives to capture in print essentially what he sees in the viewfinder, rather than altering the images after the fact. Yet at the same time, Ellsworth's photographs are not wholly documentary, but tell a story by walking a fine line between the figurative and the literal. One of Ellsworth's techniques, which he uses with great success, involves reflections. "Some of my most interesting images are 75 percent water. Water becomes the 'palette.' I don't need filters. I let the elements do it for me," Ellsworth said. A case in point is Moored, his impressionistic portrait of a wooden sailboat docked in Huntington Harbor. The water reflects the color of the boat in an abstract fashion as if the boat's paint was running, he explained. Ellsworth said that water best reflects the majesty of surrounding colors early in the morning or late in the day, as seen in Sundowners. In his late day tribute to the Northport Village Dock, a group of blue dinghies in the foreground serves as a foil for the water's golden hue, which in turn echoes the glory of a magnificent sunset.		Still other photographs are pleasing because they incorporate a visual enigma or violate an expectation. In Do re mi fa so la ti do, a row of brightly hued dinghies docked at Northport Village Harbor establishes an aesthetic structure of rhythm and repetition, and then draws attention by departing from it. "The fact that seven dinghies are pointed in a converging manner, whereas one boat is pointed in another direction, breaks the rhythm of the pattern set by the other boats, creating a certain aesthetic tension," Ellsworth explained. Most recently Ellsworth has turned his attention to doorways and windows as portals into the imagination or perhaps the unconscious, while at the same time, expressing his reverence for structures that have proven their mettle by standing the test of time. "I like things that are not fully polished and are rough around the edges. They have character," Ellsworth said. By the Wayside presents the viewer with an arresting image of an old house in New Milford, Connecticut via its reflection in the wavy glass window of an opposing barn. He found the concept so provocative that, Ellsworth, who was visiting his mother one weekend, returned the following weekend with his camera to take the picture. In a similar fashion, Old Timer pays tribute to the gracious dignity of an old barn in Northern California. "This is another one of my inverted images where the reflection becomes the main subject," Ellsworth said, explaining that the structure--past its prime--is futher mellowed by the murky waters of a pond. In Menemsha, a town on the northwestern coast of Martha's Vineyard, Ellsworth spotted a weathered window in robin's egg blue, displaying an idiosyncratic display of fishing lures of all shapes and colors. The result, an image that he dubbed Lures, is pure eye candy. Photographer John Todaro, a former Northport resident who has made his mark on Long Island's eastern end, called Ellsworth "one of the most talented photographers on the show circuit." Applauding Ellsworth's penchant for branching off into new directions, Todaro said that he is particularly impressed by photographs that Ellsworth took without reference to a horizon line, such as Lures. "He lets the shape of the window create interest in the photograph," Todaro said. Most recently, Ellsworth has begun to experiment with printing his fine art photographs on canvas, rather than framing them under glass, in an effort to provide the viewer with a more "immediate experience." Ellsworth will be exhibiting at the Mary O. Fritche Outdoor Art Show in Westhampton Beach on August 4 and 5, and the Montauk Outdoor Fine Art Show on the Green on August 18 and 19. On Cow Harbor Day (September 16), Ellsworth will be aptly situated in the Northport Village Park not far from the dock. For more information, visit his website at www.johnellsworth.com.