Ellen Wallenstein

Photographer, Book Artist, Retired Professor

Paternal Bloodline, Collages from the Archive

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School: Pratt Institute, SUNY Stony Brook Hunter College High School

Paternal Bloodline, Collages from the Archive

I became interested in photography as a child, looking at family pictures. I was interested in family resemblances- my grandmother Martha whose childhood picture at ten years old really impressed me - when I was that age I looked like her- resembled her- at least as I remember it. What I knew of her early life - when I was a child- not much! The regretful retrospect of wishing I had asked her more questions! She always looked like an old lady- white hair and a deep sadness… So using the pictures from when she was young and beautiful and happy were a revelation to me - a rediscovery of history, which I could renew by copying, cutting and weaving the past to create a new present. I made these collages out of a yearning to understand my ancestors and a psychological need to better understand myself through them.This work is part of a larger series made while an Artist-in-Residence at the Covello Center for the Aging in East Harlem, New York, from September through December 2019

PLAY

STOP

GRID

FULL

LOVE

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Public Project

Paternal Bloodline, Collages from the Archive

Copyright Ellen Wallenstein 2024

Updated May 2020

Topics Abstract, Aging, Ancestry, Beauty, Birth, Black and White, Celebrations, Children, Collage, Conceptual, Documentary, Dying/Death, Emotion, Family, Fashion, Film, Film Stills, Fine Art, Friends + Family, Historical, Immigration, Judaism, Love, Mixed Medium, Motherhood, Parenting & Family, Photo collage, Photography, Portraiture, Relationships, Spirituality

These photocollages were made during a four-month artist residency while on a sabbatical from teaching at Pratt Institute.

Ellen Wallenstein

Aug 18, 2016

Project

Opus for Anne- A Still Life

Ellen Wallenstein

Jan 30, 2016

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