Form: Photography by Ellen Fisch
From a young age, Ellen Fisch photographed many subjects in her Brooklyn neighborhood. Given a Kodak Brownie when she was 7-years-old, Ellen began to hone her way of looking through the camera’s lens at architecture, flowers and trees, people and many other features of her world. Subjects began to become isolated from their surroundings as shape, line and especially form became apparent.
In the years that Ellen began her photography journey, photographers worked in darkrooms or had their film developed in labs. Too young to work in a darkroom, Ellen asked her Parents to bring her films to a photography lab, which was conveniently located in her Brooklyn neighborhood. Once the deckle-edged, black & white prints were brought home, Ellen studied the photographs. She discovered that photography was an image on a two-dimensional surface. Looking through the camera’s lens, her subjects did not look flat, like they did when the photographs were printed. Ellen realized how important it was to create three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional surface. In this aesthetic undertaking, form played a critical role.
Form is created by using light and shadow. Perhaps the most important aspect in all of visual art is to understand exactly where the light falls on a subject and to emphasize the shadows around the light to bring forth the form. Form is the way that a subject occupies physical space and becomes almost “touchable” to the viewer. The photographs in which objects seem to connect with the viewer and with each other are those that convey form. Form created by light is a critical focus of Ellen Fisch’s photography.
Almost always using ambient light or the camera’s aperture to allow the light to configure the form, Ellen rarely photographs subjects in artificial light. Unless it is absolutely necessary to use artificial light, she finds that natural light best emphasizes the light and shadows of the subject. Occasionally, when there is no available ambient light, Ellen will use artificial lights, but rarely a flash. The flash, Ellen feels, will more often than not “blow-out” the highlights of the subject. This is hard to correct; therefore, the flash usually stays in the camera bag. However, in order to capture the subject, the moment and the form, Ellen is flexible in her ability to adapt the available light for her passion to communicate her visions with her viewers.
The photographs in the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library, 2024, illustrate Ellen Fisch’s artistry at creating forms that give two-dimensional surfaces depth and space. Subjects of Still Life and Architecture illustrate Ellen’s facility in creating images whose form is relatable and appears existent, much the same way that Ellen views these through her lens. Some of the Architectural photographs are enhanced with touches of 24K gold-leaf, a style of photography Ellen trademarked as Novoimago. Novoimago brings forth the photographs’ forms by the addition of a glowing gold or white-gold light. The Still Life photographs are printed on specialized, archival papers to complement the forms and lights within each composition.
View more of Ellen Fisch’s Photography at www.ellenfisch.com
