I acknowledge that the land where I produce the photographs, and many of the lands where I take the photographs,
is the unceded, traditional territory of the Kumeyaay Band of Nations.
is the unceded, traditional territory of the Kumeyaay Band of Nations.
My artwork centers on land and place: its power, beauty, use and abuse, and our desire for it. I am motivated and guided by my love of the land and climate crisis activism. I want my artwork to enter the imagination and heart of the viewer and serve as a spark to ignite thinking about how one chooses to live.
I photograph for reasons Robert Adams says in Beauty In Photography about his essays, “the effort we all make, photographers and non-photographers, to affirm life without lying about it. And then to behave in accord with our vision.” I am also interested in David Abram’s notion that the mind and consciousness may not be a human possession, but “rather a property of the earthly biosphere – a property in which we all participate.” And ”to acknowledge this affinity between the air and awareness…” And “Each place, that is to say, is a unique state of mind, and many beings that constitute and dwell within that locale … all participate in, and partake of the particular mind of the place.” As our earth is degrading and suffering from all of our human extractions, I work to hold the grief and joy while continuing to honor humanities' creativity and reduce my destructive behaviors.
@louiserussellj9
SELECTED BODIES OF WORK
Reverence: The San Diego River
Much of the San Diego River is invisible. She is seen mainly from bridges in busy Mission Valley and in the news when she floods streets in the rare downpours. I search for the hidden paths that lead to the river, and then her awe seeps in. Making the river visible is my intent. Hoping to illuminate her in these times of social and environmental crisis drives my artwork for Reverence, and beauty guides my framing. The images are captured on film with an 8 x 10 inch Pinhole camera, scanned, and produced as archival digital prints and as prints on film with white gold leaf.
One River, Many Stories
The San Diego River Park Foundation began recording people's stories of the river in 2009 to capture its history. I contributed to these recordings in 2009 then came back to this in 2024 to create art around some stories. To do so I recorded a few more people and found existing recordings to share through selected words by quoting different individuals. I created these on large, 3 feet wide by 6-8 feet tall, fabric cyanotype scrolls.
Earth Emotions
There is so much beauty surrounding us that it can be difficult to grasp that humanity has set in motion undoable disasters to nature. I’m asking friends to reflect on this and collaborating with them to make photographs about their feelings of nature in light of the climate crisis and ecological collapse. The photographs are accompanied by each person’s written expression of their feelings.
Ways of Knowing
Wanting to express how I experience the land–viscerally, emotionally, artistically, and scientifically–led me to pair the botanical vouchers of the plants that I collect with the photographs, in a sense putting the physical and spiritual together so viewers may create new considerations that inform and deepen our relationship with nature. Personal short writings of my experiences walking the J9 Ranch where these are collected and photographed add to the expression.
A Place to Land
With ecological collapse and social injustice weighing heavy, a group of us boarded the Searchship to look for another place to live. These images are places discovered on this fictional travel looking for a place to live sustainably and with justice for all. But I realize there is no Planet B and whatever that community will be, it’s here on Earth. It’s here we have to reimagine and create a new way of living.
Points of View is an exploration of self - looking out, in, and at appearances. It considers the range of feelings and thoughts from inside a dark room, from entrapment and loss to a safe refuge and stillness, beauty and truth. This series is concerned more with the nature of oneself than of the land.
The J9 Suite is a series of a place, the J9 Ranch in San Diego’s high desert backcountry. My grandad first worked on the property in 1900, and as newlyweds in 1914 he and my grandmother moved onto the property and registered the J9 cattle brand. This is the place my mother grew up and my sister and I played as children. I started photographing here with my 8 x 10” pinhole in 1998. The images are documents and a meditation on place, nature, and change.
Every Square Inch is a companion series with the J9 Suite using digital color images. These photographs come from a desire to know every square inch of the ranch, a longing to remember everything there, and fears of the human and natural events that may damage it. I collect botanicals. Their beauty surprises me. The possibility of their disappearance urges me to create an impossible photographic archive of the totality of this place. I press the botanicals to save them from a future thief. I'm creating a plant atlas and the botanical pressings are carefully placed on some photographs, the images an expression of the land and seed packets. This ongoing series began in 2005. It revels in the atmosphere of the ranch and attempts to create a thorough record of the place.
The Parks and Garden series is an homage to the people who have created and protect our land. I search for places that express open and unconditional time, where both the past, present, and future are felt, where many moments are captured, where a sense of the universal may be experienced, and where respect for life and the land that supports us exists.
Land Marks, a photo-based assemblage series, does not idealize the nature of cities, does not provide meditative vistas, nor does it speak to the romantic sublime. These works look at small areas on the street and sidewalk and their link to our industrial-based lifestyle. Combining photographic documents of the street with objects, I aim to create a view that inspires us to ponder our lifestyles and imagine other possibilities.
Evacuate is a fictional series of people and places in unknown situations of danger and disaster and considers the sense of doom that hangs in the air, that is blasted at us everyday.
DisPlays of Nature explores the artificial environments of our culture that increasingly have become the main experience of nature for many - zoos, water parks, amusement parks. What happens when people have no first-hand experience of wild nature, of un-manicured natural places, of getting dirty, of the silence when nothing else is around?
SELECTED EXHIBITS
EDUCATION
MA, Educational Technology, San Diego State University
BA, Social Science, San Diego State University
AFFILIATIONS
I photograph for reasons Robert Adams says in Beauty In Photography about his essays, “the effort we all make, photographers and non-photographers, to affirm life without lying about it. And then to behave in accord with our vision.” I am also interested in David Abram’s notion that the mind and consciousness may not be a human possession, but “rather a property of the earthly biosphere – a property in which we all participate.” And ”to acknowledge this affinity between the air and awareness…” And “Each place, that is to say, is a unique state of mind, and many beings that constitute and dwell within that locale … all participate in, and partake of the particular mind of the place.” As our earth is degrading and suffering from all of our human extractions, I work to hold the grief and joy while continuing to honor humanities' creativity and reduce my destructive behaviors.
@louiserussellj9
SELECTED BODIES OF WORK
Reverence: The San Diego River
Much of the San Diego River is invisible. She is seen mainly from bridges in busy Mission Valley and in the news when she floods streets in the rare downpours. I search for the hidden paths that lead to the river, and then her awe seeps in. Making the river visible is my intent. Hoping to illuminate her in these times of social and environmental crisis drives my artwork for Reverence, and beauty guides my framing. The images are captured on film with an 8 x 10 inch Pinhole camera, scanned, and produced as archival digital prints and as prints on film with white gold leaf.
One River, Many Stories
The San Diego River Park Foundation began recording people's stories of the river in 2009 to capture its history. I contributed to these recordings in 2009 then came back to this in 2024 to create art around some stories. To do so I recorded a few more people and found existing recordings to share through selected words by quoting different individuals. I created these on large, 3 feet wide by 6-8 feet tall, fabric cyanotype scrolls.
Earth Emotions
There is so much beauty surrounding us that it can be difficult to grasp that humanity has set in motion undoable disasters to nature. I’m asking friends to reflect on this and collaborating with them to make photographs about their feelings of nature in light of the climate crisis and ecological collapse. The photographs are accompanied by each person’s written expression of their feelings.
Ways of Knowing
Wanting to express how I experience the land–viscerally, emotionally, artistically, and scientifically–led me to pair the botanical vouchers of the plants that I collect with the photographs, in a sense putting the physical and spiritual together so viewers may create new considerations that inform and deepen our relationship with nature. Personal short writings of my experiences walking the J9 Ranch where these are collected and photographed add to the expression.
A Place to Land
With ecological collapse and social injustice weighing heavy, a group of us boarded the Searchship to look for another place to live. These images are places discovered on this fictional travel looking for a place to live sustainably and with justice for all. But I realize there is no Planet B and whatever that community will be, it’s here on Earth. It’s here we have to reimagine and create a new way of living.
Points of View is an exploration of self - looking out, in, and at appearances. It considers the range of feelings and thoughts from inside a dark room, from entrapment and loss to a safe refuge and stillness, beauty and truth. This series is concerned more with the nature of oneself than of the land.
The J9 Suite is a series of a place, the J9 Ranch in San Diego’s high desert backcountry. My grandad first worked on the property in 1900, and as newlyweds in 1914 he and my grandmother moved onto the property and registered the J9 cattle brand. This is the place my mother grew up and my sister and I played as children. I started photographing here with my 8 x 10” pinhole in 1998. The images are documents and a meditation on place, nature, and change.
Every Square Inch is a companion series with the J9 Suite using digital color images. These photographs come from a desire to know every square inch of the ranch, a longing to remember everything there, and fears of the human and natural events that may damage it. I collect botanicals. Their beauty surprises me. The possibility of their disappearance urges me to create an impossible photographic archive of the totality of this place. I press the botanicals to save them from a future thief. I'm creating a plant atlas and the botanical pressings are carefully placed on some photographs, the images an expression of the land and seed packets. This ongoing series began in 2005. It revels in the atmosphere of the ranch and attempts to create a thorough record of the place.
The Parks and Garden series is an homage to the people who have created and protect our land. I search for places that express open and unconditional time, where both the past, present, and future are felt, where many moments are captured, where a sense of the universal may be experienced, and where respect for life and the land that supports us exists.
Land Marks, a photo-based assemblage series, does not idealize the nature of cities, does not provide meditative vistas, nor does it speak to the romantic sublime. These works look at small areas on the street and sidewalk and their link to our industrial-based lifestyle. Combining photographic documents of the street with objects, I aim to create a view that inspires us to ponder our lifestyles and imagine other possibilities.
Evacuate is a fictional series of people and places in unknown situations of danger and disaster and considers the sense of doom that hangs in the air, that is blasted at us everyday.
DisPlays of Nature explores the artificial environments of our culture that increasingly have become the main experience of nature for many - zoos, water parks, amusement parks. What happens when people have no first-hand experience of wild nature, of un-manicured natural places, of getting dirty, of the silence when nothing else is around?
SELECTED EXHIBITS
- Athenaeum Music and Arts Library 33rd Annual Juried Exhibition, Honorable Mention from juror Malcolm Warner, La Jolla, CA, 2005
- s(Light) of Hand, Special Mention from juror Aline Smithson, Photographer’s Eye Gallery, Escondido, CA, 2025
- Everything and Anything, Group Show, Level of Service/Not Required, La Jolla, CA, 2025
- San Diego River Artist Alliance, Group Show, Hyde Art Gallery, Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA, 2025
- Living and Photographing in an Imperfect Union, online, Award winner from juror Arthur Ollman, Photographer’s Eye Gallery, Escondido, CA, 2025
- 2023 International Juried Exhibition, juror Shana Lopes, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA 2023
- Personal Territory: Annual Members Exhibition, Los Angeles Center of Photography, Los Angeles, CA,2023
- Snowcreek Collective, Group exhibition, Photographer’s Eye Gallery, Escondido, CA, 2023
- Gallery Photographers’ Exhibition, The Photography Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2023
- The River: Sea to Source, San Diego River Artists Alliance Group Show, Gallery 21, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 2023
- (UN) NATURAL CYCLES: Land, Water, Air, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2022
- (s)Light of Hand, Alternative processes exhibit, The Photographer's Eye, Escondido, CA, 2022
- Annual Juried Exhibit, Front Porch Gallery, Carlsbad, CA, 2022
- Artist of the Month, Julian Library, San Diego County, CA, 2022
- Layered Light, LIGHT ART SPACE, 2021
- Botany of Living, a two person exhibit, The Photographer's Eye, 2021
- Strong Strong Women, The Frame Maker, 2020
- Lenscratch Feature for Points of View, April 2019
- Alleghany Arts Council National Photography Exhibition, Alleghany, Maryland, 2019
- 6th Open Call, Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, Rhode Island, 2019
- Open Show San Diego, 2017
- Krappy Kamera, Soho Photo Gallery, New York City, 2017
- Size Matters, Low Gallery and Medium Festival of Photography, San Diego, 2016
- Alternative Cameras: Pinhole to Plastic, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2016
- Layers, Group Show with Land Marks, 10th Avenue Art Gallery, 2015
- Art Makes Change, Vision LA, CLimate Action Arts Festival, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles, CA, 2015
- Grossmont College Faculty Shows, 2010 - 2013
- 13th Annual Juried Exhibit, 3rd Place, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 2004
- Pinhole Magic, 2 Person Exhibit, The Photographer’s Gallery, 2004
- Imparting Grace, Group Exhibit, Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, 2003
- Why Pinhole? Juried Exhibit, Visual Studies Workshop, New York, 2000
- DisPlays of Nature, San Diego Art Institute, 1988
- Guest on the John Olson Podcast on San Diego River Artists Alliance Pop Ups at the San Diego River Park Foundation's River Days, 2025
- Interview article with Lisa Deaderick on the Hyde Art Gallery Exhibition, San Diego Union Tribune, March, 2025
- Co-facilitator, Present Tense Artist Talks, Medium Photo, a quarterly in-person event, San Diego, CA 2023 to present
- The Botany of Living, The Photographer's Eye Gallery to accompany the exhibit, February, 2021
- Tree Talk - ecoartspace zoom presentation on Ways of Knowing, January, 2021
- Earth Day - Artists and Scientists, San Diego Italian Film Festival, April, 2020
- Lenscratch, 2019
EDUCATION
MA, Educational Technology, San Diego State University
BA, Social Science, San Diego State University
AFFILIATIONS
- San Diego River Artists’ Alliance
- Snowcreek Collective
- Medium Photo
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BIO
Louise Russell is a photo-based artist who photographs with an 8 x 10 inch pinhole camera and digital cameras producing silver gelatin, archival inkjet prints and white gold leaf on PictoricoPro film. Her work has been featured on Lenscractch.com, on the John Olson podcast, presented at Open Show San Diego, 2018, and been exhibited at Photographer's Eye Gallery, Escondido, CA, Soho Photo Gallery, Size Matters Medium Festival, Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Light, Art Space, and other galleries. She was an adjunct instructor of photography at Grossmont College and is a co-founder of San Diego River Artists Alliance, and a member of Snowcreek Collective and Medium Photo. She was born in 1949 and while she has always photographed, she had a career in education and educational software. |
All images copyright Louise Russell