Ellen Cantor - Susan Spiritus Gallery

ART WORK
BIOGRAPHY

Prior Pleasures (Children's Books)

Alice in Wonderland

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Little Women

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Black Beauty

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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My Friend Flicka

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2015
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Jo’s Boys

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Little Men

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2015
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Hajji Baba

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Heidi

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2015
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Kidnapped

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Treasure Island

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12/3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Eight Cousins

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Nancy Drew

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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The Campfire Girls

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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From the Tower Window

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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The Latch Key

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Up One Pair of Stairs

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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My Bookhouse

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Through Fairy Halls

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Swiss Family Robinson

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2017
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Raggedy Andy

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Robinson Crusoe

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2017
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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Bobbsey Twins

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2017
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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The Last of the Mohicans

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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A Child’s Garden of Verses I

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2013
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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A Child’s Garden of Verses II

Medium: Archival digital print
Date: 2014
Size: 12 3/4 x 12 3/4", 16x16", 20x20"
Edition: 15, 10, 7

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BIOGRAPHY

Ellen Cantor was born in Chicago, Illinois and lives in Southern California. She graduated from the University of Illinois and UCLA Environmental Design Program. She studied photography at Santa Fe Workshops, Maine Media and The Los Angeles Center of Photography .

Her images are about time, loss, and memory. By photographing and re-contextualizing precious mementos she has sought to understand how life proceeds and then, ultimately, disappears. She documents the artifacts of the past in order to enrich her present.

Her work examines how families archive and pass down memories from generation to generation. This work responds to a universally relatable experience, of sifting through the items left behind, determining how to incorporate our inheritance.

Prior Pleasures

In an age when technology is slowly replacing the tactile experience of reading a book, my work recalls and celebrates the joy of losing oneself within the pages of a favorite childhood tale.

My current project, entitled Prior Pleasures, is deeply influenced by my love of literature. This series explores memory and preservation of the past while ensuring the creation of a visual legacy for the next generation. The books photographed for this series are the ones I have carried with me since childhood. My mother read them to me and, in turn, I read them to my children, carrying on a tradition of the written and spoken word.

Prior Pleasures is created using a multiple exposure technique (without Photoshop.) I photograph the end pages, illustrations, and text. This process allows me to show the excitement of a book fluttering open and coming to life for readers of all generations.

Rediscovering these books led me to realize the power and value of the hands-on experience of reading. As I documented each volume, I was transported to a time and place that allowed for imagination and fantasy. With this series, I examine what it is that we remember and how we honor objects that inspired our early creative thinking. Ultimately, Prior Pleasures is meant to remind us that books can excite and enrich our lives.