Ellen Cantor

Prior Pleasures

Nancy Drew
The Campfire Girls
From the Tower Window
Alice in Wonderland
The Latch Key
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates
Up One Pair of Stairs
Little Women
My Bookhouse
Black Beauty
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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.