With a name that translates to “bringer of light” in Celtic and Gaelic, it’s no surprise that Ellen Carey—named one of the leading 100 women photographers worldwide by The Royal Photographic Society of London—carries an inherent fascination for the complexities of light.
“My birth name was a prescient gift from my parents,” Carey says. “Photography means ‘light drawing’ from the Greek, so destiny and fate are intertwined into my DNA along with the characteristics of the medium. Light with color informed my childhood, from the stained glass windows of my Catholic upbringing to a fascination with light and all its properties: shadow, outline, silhouette, and reflection.”
In 2021, the Hartford photographer and art school professor received an invitation to showcase her cumulative work around the concept of light at the Delamar Hotel. Carey presented her “Lights, Camera, Ellen Carey” exhibition, the sixth installation from the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) at the Delamar.
“The Delamar Hotel offered a unique experience for me,” Carey says. “Very special in that I, too, love to travel. Here guests and visitors viewed my work, in situ, reminding them (and me) of the importance of travel ‘pictures’ in photography. This reference doubles in the importance of a hotel’s role at the dawn of photography up to the present, seen at the Delamar, now in the 21st century. Here photographers and the hotel guests, plus the public can interact. It was terrific.”
The showcase delved into Carey’s extensive career collections, offering a glimpse into her three-decade-long exploration of photographic subjects and processes. As a part of the NBMAA’s 2020/20+ Women @ NBMAA initiative, Carey was featured alongside other innovative, female-identifying artists who have helped make significant contributions throughout American History.
“Photography transcends the gender codes of this centuries old discourse around great women artists, and yes, many many ‘camera operators,’ an early term for photographers, were female,” Carey says. “In the early 19th century, many hotels were used by photographers as a place to meet, develop their glass negatives, and talk about their work. Women were there and their contributions to our medium are stellar and substantial, well-documented.”
“ Women were there and their contributions to our medium are stellar and substantial, well-documented. ”
Carey’s penchant for the complex is undeniable. As an artist, she is self-disciplined and multidimensional—both a master of her craft and a student craving deeper discovery.
“My works contain aspects that are conceptually linked and informed through visual characteristics,” Carey says. “Formal issues of size and scale, in tandem with palette, create visual impact. The content-laden aspects of my work are weighed in—their echo is embedded and realized in my choices of method and material—an acknowledgment that these contain symbols and signs, which create and extend my art’s meaning.”
Carey’s New Britain Museum of American Art solo exhibition, “Struck by Light,” is available for viewing through January 2024. Her solo exhibition “Light Struck,” will be on display at the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock, England through March 2024. Her 2024 collaborations with the Delamar Hotel are currently in development.
