Ellen Blair - Photography | Edinburgh College of Art Graduate Show 2021

Ellen Blair - Photography

"Participants in the project literally speak for themselves, expressing how they would like their stories to be portrayed by reading aloud letters they have written to each other in their own voices."

Interview by Eva Coutts

Chosen families within the LGBTQ+ community is the subject of Ellen Blair’s graduation project.

What is your graduation project about?

‘Spectrum’ is about chosen families within the LGBTQ+ community. A separate sense of family and community outside their biological one is incredibly important for many people who belong to the Queer community as they can be misunderstood or rejected by their biological families and society. Safe spaces are therefore important in finding acceptance, understanding, and a place to learn and grow as our authentic selves. My work focuses on Queer joy and portrays an insight into the intimacy and friendship involved in these chosen families. It subverts societal ideas of family and kinship through the reappropriation of the family photo album, using the scientific term spectrum as a motif to explore the transcension of boundaries.

During lockdown I really missed that sense of community and I wanted to revisit good times by writing letters. Part of the project is a website where there are letters from every participant. There’s also space for anyone who visits the website to join the project with their own stories and letters.

How do you best like to work?

My work relies heavily on collaboration and communication. Participants in the project literally speak for themselves, expressing how they would like their stories to be portrayed by reading aloud letters they have written to each other in their own voices. Despite my work belonging to an online space, I like being able to hold it, so will often print out and work back into my photographs physically before rescanning them. I wanted the photos in Spectrum to have a physical feel and feel like a family album. I handled them, drew on them, folded them, ripped them.

Can you tell us about some of the things which inspire you and your work?

I am so inspired by my friends and my community. There is an abundance of sad and tragic stories about the Queer community in mainstream media and I wanted to represent more of the love, strength, and support found within the queer community.

I also listened to Hannah Reyes Morales, a National Geographic photographer, speaking about the concept of safe spaces and a project of hers about lullabies - their ability to be portable safe spaces. I was really taken by this idea of portable safe spaces. Personally I re-read letters years after they are written, they are safe places that you can just go into. I wanted to give people the chance to take a moment to show friends how thankful they are. We get so wrapped up by the busyness of life that we forget to thank our friends.

What have been the highlights of your time at ECA and in Edinburgh?

I first visited ECA on a snowy day in April, and as I walked around I was like ‘this is it.’ It was an impulsive decision!

Late nights in the studio were definitely a highlight, watching the sun go down behind the castle sitting on the ledge of our huge studio window. Also, the anticipation of the cherry blossoms coming out on the Meadows and that first walk through them in bloom is magical. I feel so lucky to have gone to uni in such a beautiful city and to have met some wonderful people here.

How have the events over the past year affected your work?

I love working with my hands so having workshop facilities closed and transitioning into an online space was difficult to wrap my head around at first, but I found my rhythm with it, managed to somehow build a website and now my work exists entirely online as a kind of interactive, site-specific artwork. The lockdown made me realise how much I crave communication, community and connection, which is definitely reflected in my work this year.

I’m quite a messy person and I like having my studio mess separate from my bedroom mess so the spilling over was tricky, with ripped bits of paper scattered around my room! Previously I tried to stay away from the computer as much as possible, I love using my hands with things like screen printing and I love the dark room, but this year was about sitting down and saying, ‘Okay, let's learn Photoshop!’.

Have you got plans for after graduating?

After graduating, I will be returning home to Northern Ireland and will miss Edinburgh so much (it will definitely be a teary boat journey). I hope to continue with this project, taking photos without a 2m distance maybe? I’m excited to start working as a freelancing photographer too hopefully!

Ellen Blair's portfolio page