elliot ross
elliot ross was born in Chicago. He was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1971. His project entitled Animal was featured in fotoMagazin (Germany), as part of its Masterpieces of Photography series, as well as in Le Journal de la Photographie (France), and other international publications. His books include Yehudhith (Hawkhaven Press, San Francisco, 2004). His work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among other institutions. Ross is represented by Schilt Publishing Gallery, Amsterdam; Alan Klotz Gallery, New York; and Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, New York. He lives in San Francisco and New York with his wife, the writer Ellen Ullman.
www.schiltpublishing.com
other animals
As curator of contemporary art at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, diana l. daniels organizes exhibitions and researches, makes acquisitions, and promotes the museum’s permanent collection. She is the author of several exhibition catalogues as well as numerous essays. In 2011, Daniels was introduced to Elliot Ross’s animal portraits, and selections from his first series are recent, noteworthy additions to the Crocker’s photography holdings. In Ross’s stirring, seductive, and classic yet fully contemporary images, the essayist finds a new level of richness that redefines the accomplishment possible in digital photography.
elliot ross
other animals
other animals is the sequel to American artist Elliot Ross’ critically acclaimed book of photographic animal portraits titled Animal (Schilt Publishing 2010). Approaching many species more closely, he has continued examining his thoughts and feelings about being an animal in a world with other animals: the wonder and beauty, as well as the unease. In this book he studies other species’ similarities and differences, their textures, physiques, and apparent physiognomies while using drawing techniques he has developed within digital imaging. The result is a group of strikingly sculptural black-and-white portraits that are at once photographs and drawings.
We can recognize the other animals as fellow creatures who share our fate as conscious, living beings struggling to get along in a world we never made. Christine Korsgaard
We can recognize the other animals as fellow creatures who share our fate as conscious, living beings struggling to get along in a world we never made. Christine Korsgaard
elliot ross
other animals
elliot ross
other animals
More than luscious imagery
In 1503 Albrecht Dürer conceived in watercolor
taken great pleasure in doing so, making the
2010 publication Animal. Ross’s evocation of
by Diana L. Daniels
The Large Piece of Turf, a study of nature so
drawing for its own sake, “and having done so,
Dürer is especially striking in both series of
painstakingly realized that each blade of grass is
the young artist found it worth keeping.” 2
portraits. The first encounter with the image
magnificently present in the composition. While
Studying this creature for the enjoyment of
Animal (127), 2009, from Animal, is like seeing
animal and plant studies on paper abound
contemplating it is of magnitude because no
what an Old Master might choose to do with
among the treasures of Renaissance workshops,
artist before Dürer so poignantly pondered on
his talent today, if so transported. In this image
Dürer’s turf is exceptional. Aside from the
paper, or in painting, the animal being, and by
of a snowy colored rabbit, Ross freezes the
aching realism he achieves, the scene is fully
extension the gap between animals and humans,
moment, but also makes palpable the moving
realized and self-contained. His novel choice of
as in these works. Rather, sketches of animals
breath and quiver of the rabbit’s heart rate.
the low vantage point from the ground looking
were executed purposefully in preparation for
We see how respiration moves the fur; how
up at seedheads on blades of grass makes nature
the visual elements of a painting upon which
an ear twitches. The resulting image displays
and its life forces an enchanting tale, story
might be cast the traits of human protagonists,
a commanding hand and the delicacy of
enough in itself. His departure from tradition
or alternately as the apparatus of travel when
graphite and watercolor on paper, Renaissance
was revolutionary. Dürer had “somehow granted
the creature depicted was not germane to
or contemporary period, an effect at once
himself the permission to draw natural objects
the narrative. Thus, animals tended to be
traditional and of the present. Moreover, the
as portraits rather than as symbols,” a consent
metaphors for human selves. Yet in these few
final image disguises the artistic intuition
that swiftly inspired imitators and new genres.1
works, Dürer engendered a lasting appreciation
and elaboration required to make us feel so
of images of animals.
intimately engaged.
ever so briefly did in watercolors and drawings
Fifty-six of Ross’s most recent portraits of
With the aforementioned rabbit—as is true
of exquisitely rendered hares, squirrels, a beetle,
animals are included in the portfolio Other
of all those included in Other Animals—the
and once, after an unusual encounter, a walrus.
Animals: a peaceable kingdom consisting of
portrait was digitally photographed. While Ross
So sensitively did Dürer on one occasion treat
bats, hyenas, monkeys, frogs, birds, and fish,
typically photographs his sitters in the context
the subject of a young bull that he must have
among others, expanding upon the artist’s
of the surroundings in which he encounters
Elliot Ross creates portraits of animals as Dürer
More than luscious imagery
In 1503 Albrecht Dürer conceived in watercolor
taken great pleasure in doing so, making the
2010 publication Animal. Ross’s evocation of
by Diana L. Daniels
The Large Piece of Turf, a study of nature so
drawing for its own sake, “and having done so,
Dürer is especially striking in both series of
painstakingly realized that each blade of grass is
the young artist found it worth keeping.” 2
portraits. The first encounter with the image
magnificently present in the composition. While
Studying this creature for the enjoyment of
Animal (127), 2009, from Animal, is like seeing
animal and plant studies on paper abound
contemplating it is of magnitude because no
what an Old Master might choose to do with
among the treasures of Renaissance workshops,
artist before Dürer so poignantly pondered on
his talent today, if so transported. In this image
Dürer’s turf is exceptional. Aside from the
paper, or in painting, the animal being, and by
of a snowy colored rabbit, Ross freezes the
aching realism he achieves, the scene is fully
extension the gap between animals and humans,
moment, but also makes palpable the moving
realized and self-contained. His novel choice of
as in these works. Rather, sketches of animals
breath and quiver of the rabbit’s heart rate.
the low vantage point from the ground looking
were executed purposefully in preparation for
We see how respiration moves the fur; how
up at seedheads on blades of grass makes nature
the visual elements of a painting upon which
an ear twitches. The resulting image displays
and its life forces an enchanting tale, story
might be cast the traits of human protagonists,
a commanding hand and the delicacy of
enough in itself. His departure from tradition
or alternately as the apparatus of travel when
graphite and watercolor on paper, Renaissance
was revolutionary. Dürer had “somehow granted
the creature depicted was not germane to
or contemporary period, an effect at once
himself the permission to draw natural objects
the narrative. Thus, animals tended to be
traditional and of the present. Moreover, the
as portraits rather than as symbols,” a consent
metaphors for human selves. Yet in these few
final image disguises the artistic intuition
that swiftly inspired imitators and new genres.1
works, Dürer engendered a lasting appreciation
and elaboration required to make us feel so
of images of animals.
intimately engaged.
ever so briefly did in watercolors and drawings
Fifty-six of Ross’s most recent portraits of
With the aforementioned rabbit—as is true
of exquisitely rendered hares, squirrels, a beetle,
animals are included in the portfolio Other
of all those included in Other Animals—the
and once, after an unusual encounter, a walrus.
Animals: a peaceable kingdom consisting of
portrait was digitally photographed. While Ross
So sensitively did Dürer on one occasion treat
bats, hyenas, monkeys, frogs, birds, and fish,
typically photographs his sitters in the context
the subject of a young bull that he must have
among others, expanding upon the artist’s
of the surroundings in which he encounters
Elliot Ross creates portraits of animals as Dürer
them, he carefully culls and selects images for
all its varieties, expressions, and extents remain
this can be is evident in the head of a male
Some animals possess sociability. Some display
editing and modeling on the computer, the latter
largely unknown. We are left to grapple with, in
turkey. The fleshy wrinkles of his caruncle and
affection, empathy, grief, envy, hostility and
process requiring days of concentrated effort.
philosopher Cora Diamond’s words, “a sense of
snood are tangible and, when “drawn” in black
shame. Others have words for predators or use
With meticulous dodging and burning, moving
astonishment and incomprehension that there
and white, convey all the power of character
tools. Just because an animal’s reasoning is
slowly from quadrant to quadrant, highlighting
should be beings so like us, so unlike us; so
defined by wrinkles lining a human face. The
not human-like does not mean it is mindless.
and darkening details, Ross labors until the
astonishingly capable of being companions of
connection is realized because Ross has stilled
Ultimately, Ross’s portraits offer more than
“drawing” emerges, so nuanced that it offers
ours and so unfathomably distant.” The tension
the moment and deliberately calmed the natural
luscious imagery; they offer wonder.
a satisfying perception of the subject. Ross,
between our connection to and isolation from
vigilance of this singular adult male through
having like Dürer the “sense for the substance
knowing animals Ross found so compelling that
editorial choices. Thus afforded a prolonged
and texture of the living animal,”3 captures
reflection became inquiry into art, science—
look, we find before us a wise old senator
with his camera the sitter and then does the
evolutionary, behavorial, and neurological—and
weighing the world in his thoughts.
transformative: he makes the individual that is
philosophy.
each animal personal to us.
Ross honors the gap between ourselves and
The latter notion seemingly brings us full circle
other animals, all the while embracing the direct
to Renaissance practice: the attribution of the
Other Animals, like its predecessor, is an essay
knowing we do have of animal personality. In
human to the animal. In Other Animals, it is
inspired by the artist’s intense reflection on
his approach, Ross, not unlike Irving Penn in
arguably more meaningful to consider whether
the profundity and eternal mystery of the
his series of street types created in 1950 and
in a rabbit, gorilla, or hyena, we recognize
bonds of trust we establish with dear animal
1951, focuses on the single subject, elaborating
some measure in each gaze of how they weigh
1. Karen Reeds, “Albrecht Dürer and the Animal and Plant Studies of the
companions. With our animal companions we
uniqueness by creating a velvety and mysterious
the world, of the terms of their experience. As
Renaissance by Fritz Koreny; Pamela Marwood; Yehuda Shapiro,” Isis 81,
are aware that the reward of the relationship
black field from which the figure emerges—a
such, Ross offers a consideration, privileged by
no. 4 (Dec. 1990): 768.
is mutual. Our beliefs are affirmed in our
tone far richer than Penn’s palladium
beauty, of the romantic view of the mental life
2. Gaillard F. Ravenal, in “Young Bull,” in Charles W. Talbot, et al.,
exchange of acknowledgment, affection, and
backgrounds. Further establishing the visibility
of animals, but not exclusively or conclusively.
Dürer in America: His Graphic Work, exh. cat. National Gallery of Art
the sharing of emotional dependence. Yet even
of the animal self is Ross’s emphasis on the
He merely asks that we contemplate the value
(Washington, 1971), no. ii.
after a century of studying animal intelligence,
sitter’s direct gaze when possible. How stirring
of the animal’s experience, not just our own.
3. Ibid
them, he carefully culls and selects images for
all its varieties, expressions, and extents remain
this can be is evident in the head of a male
Some animals possess sociability. Some display
editing and modeling on the computer, the latter
largely unknown. We are left to grapple with, in
turkey. The fleshy wrinkles of his caruncle and
affection, empathy, grief, envy, hostility and
process requiring days of concentrated effort.
philosopher Cora Diamond’s words, “a sense of
snood are tangible and, when “drawn” in black
shame. Others have words for predators or use
With meticulous dodging and burning, moving
astonishment and incomprehension that there
and white, convey all the power of character
tools. Just because an animal’s reasoning is
slowly from quadrant to quadrant, highlighting
should be beings so like us, so unlike us; so
defined by wrinkles lining a human face. The
not human-like does not mean it is mindless.
and darkening details, Ross labors until the
astonishingly capable of being companions of
connection is realized because Ross has stilled
Ultimately, Ross’s portraits offer more than
“drawing” emerges, so nuanced that it offers
ours and so unfathomably distant.” The tension
the moment and deliberately calmed the natural
luscious imagery; they offer wonder.
a satisfying perception of the subject. Ross,
between our connection to and isolation from
vigilance of this singular adult male through
having like Dürer the “sense for the substance
knowing animals Ross found so compelling that
editorial choices. Thus afforded a prolonged
and texture of the living animal,”3 captures
reflection became inquiry into art, science—
look, we find before us a wise old senator
with his camera the sitter and then does the
evolutionary, behavorial, and neurological—and
weighing the world in his thoughts.
transformative: he makes the individual that is
philosophy.
each animal personal to us.
Ross honors the gap between ourselves and
The latter notion seemingly brings us full circle
other animals, all the while embracing the direct
to Renaissance practice: the attribution of the
Other Animals, like its predecessor, is an essay
knowing we do have of animal personality. In
human to the animal. In Other Animals, it is
inspired by the artist’s intense reflection on
his approach, Ross, not unlike Irving Penn in
arguably more meaningful to consider whether
the profundity and eternal mystery of the
his series of street types created in 1950 and
in a rabbit, gorilla, or hyena, we recognize
bonds of trust we establish with dear animal
1951, focuses on the single subject, elaborating
some measure in each gaze of how they weigh
1. Karen Reeds, “Albrecht Dürer and the Animal and Plant Studies of the
companions. With our animal companions we
uniqueness by creating a velvety and mysterious
the world, of the terms of their experience. As
Renaissance by Fritz Koreny; Pamela Marwood; Yehuda Shapiro,” Isis 81,
are aware that the reward of the relationship
black field from which the figure emerges—a
such, Ross offers a consideration, privileged by
no. 4 (Dec. 1990): 768.
is mutual. Our beliefs are affirmed in our
tone far richer than Penn’s palladium
beauty, of the romantic view of the mental life
2. Gaillard F. Ravenal, in “Young Bull,” in Charles W. Talbot, et al.,
exchange of acknowledgment, affection, and
backgrounds. Further establishing the visibility
of animals, but not exclusively or conclusively.
Dürer in America: His Graphic Work, exh. cat. National Gallery of Art
the sharing of emotional dependence. Yet even
of the animal self is Ross’s emphasis on the
He merely asks that we contemplate the value
(Washington, 1971), no. ii.
after a century of studying animal intelligence,
sitter’s direct gaze when possible. How stirring
of the animal’s experience, not just our own.
3. Ibid