Elizabeth Ransom is a WWU graduate, she has been pursuing a successful and fulfilling career in Photography. Currently, Elizabeth is working on a Gallery Project called Immigration Day, which she talks about throughout the interview below. Elizabeth draws a lot of inspiration from the people around her, which is another thing she goes into more detail on in our interview. Elizabeth has several galleries that she has worked on over the years that have been displayed internationally. For more of Elizabeth Ransom’s work, please check out her website: here.
How long have you been doing photography?
When I was a child my very first camera was a blue plastic Fisher-Price 35mm film camera with handles on either side, a very popular toy for children in the 90’s in the UK, which I remember taking photos with on holidays and in the garden. So, I guess technically you could say I’ve been playing around with cameras for around 26 years. However, it wasn’t until I first stepped foot in the darkroom in high school that I really started to fall in the love with the medium. Cedarcrest high school had a tiny darkroom in the back of the digital lab which could fit maybe three or four people in at a time and I would make sure to sign up for any class I possibly could where I would get to play around with photography and then when I started taking classes at Western Washington University in 2008 I started to take it more seriously and explore the possibilities of alternative photographic practices and experimenting with manipulating the surface of the print.
Where do you expect Photography to lead you to in 5 or 10 years?
I hope that within 5 years I will have completed my Ph.D. I’m currently enrolled as a part-time research student at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. Fingers crossed if everything goes to plan, I will have completed my thesis and will hopefully be pursuing other research projects related to photography. One of my biggest passions and interests is the representation of women in photography especially within museum collections and gallery exhibitions. Even though there have been huge strides in inequality in recent years women in the arts are still massively underrepresented and are exhibited less, collected less, and their work sells for less than their male counterparts and even more so for BIPOC women and members of the LGTBQ+ community. I hope that within the next 5 to 10 years I will be working to help rectify this whilst also continuing my own art practice.
What is your biggest inspiration or motivator when it comes to capturing photography?
My biggest inspiration and motivators are my wonderful mentors and friends in the photography community who are such enthusiastic, supportive powerhouses. I am extremely lucky to be surrounded by phenomenal artists on a daily basis that provides me with endless inspiration and motivation. The wonderful conversations that I have with my advisors Anna Fox and Jean Wainwright as well as working alongside Karen Knorr, Maria Kapajeva, Effie Paleologou, and Sunil Gupta provided me with the fuel and confidence to keep making work. In addition, I draw from my own personal experience of transnational identity and the narratives of others for sources of inspiration.
What aspects of photography do you enjoy the most?
Photography is magic and it is something I never try to forget. From the very first moment you see an image appear on the surface of a piece of light-sensitive paper in the darkroom to making an image out of beetroot juice, it seems there is an endless supply of possibilities. I love that there are so many processes and techniques to explore. Discovering new ways of making images brings me so much joy. Photography for me is like being a kid again.
A lot of your work involves cyanotype prints, do you prefer this over traditional photography?
For me, I find the use of alternative photographic practices like cyanotype easier to convey my ideas. There is something about the unbounded, unrestricted, undefined nature of alt processes that I really enjoy. I love traditional forms of photography as well, but in my own personal practice, I prefer to use a combination of cyanotype, pinhole, photograms, etc. It also has to do with the nature of the project I am working on. When I am creating new work there are certain processes that just make more sense or are more able to translate the experience I am trying to communicate so, it is really project-dependent.
What inspired you to start your current project, Immigration Day?
My most recent work, Immigration Day, began when I first realized it was the 20th anniversary of the day I moved to America. This is a day that has played a huge role in how I define myself and how I understand the world. This is the day that I became an immigrant, someone who was different someone who didn’t belong. It also marked a halfway point for me. On December 21, 2019, I had lived equally in America for 15 years and in the UK for 15 years. If you mark national identity based on the amount of time spent in a location, on this date I became 50/50. I became suddenly obsessed with capturing this moment, creating a record of the exact day and place.
What is your favorite project you’ve worked on so far?
This is a tricky question. On a personal level, I think Immigration Day has been one of the most important projects I’ve created. I have a truly emotional connection to this body of work and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to part with it as it holds such significance in my transnational journey. But I think the new work I’m creating at the moment is a really fun process that I’m excited about developing and playing around with.
Do you have any projects in the works that you haven’t made public yet? (If so, then can you tell us a little bit about them?)
I’m working on a new body of work using the chromatography process which involves collecting soil and plant samples from places from my childhood to create a solution that is then absorbed into a piece of filter paper coated in silver nitrate. The image is then forever light-sensitive and impossible to fix. The photograph will continue to change colours as time passes. With this new project, I’m really digging much deeper into the concept of place attachment and the role that memory plays on transnational identity and ideas surrounding “home”.
You’ve also spent some time assistant teaching at UCA Farnham, is there anything you’ve learned from this about photography that you didn’t expect to learn?
The greatest part of being a TA on the MFA photography course at UCA are the wonderful students. We have an extremely diverse and international cohort with different professional backgrounds. Each of which brings amazing talents and skills to the course that they share so freely with each other. I am constantly inspired and learn from them a myriad of skills surrounding photography that I had never encountered before.
Have you drawn any inspiration from your experiences at UCA?
Absolutely, my time spent at UCA as a student and now as a member of staff has provided me with the resources and skills to make my ideas a reality. I have had wonderful mentors that inspire me every day and UCA has provided me with many experiences and opportunities I could have only dreamt of before doing my MFA.
How has COVID changed your creative process?
During our first lockdown in the UK like many, I was stuck at home with none of the technical resources I had become accustomed to. No longer could I freely walk into the colour darkroom to make a print or play around in the lighting studios. But along with not having access to equipment I felt completely overwhelmed and exhausted. There were so many COVID-19 projects popping up. It felt like everywhere I looked there were people making work in response to the pandemic. For me, it was really quite difficult to comprehend and I didn’t feel creative at all. However, COVID-19 did have a huge impact on my transnational experience. Living halfway around the world from your family at the best of times can be difficult. Only communicating with the people you love most through your laptop gets really lonely. When the pandemic hit everyone suddenly was in the same position. Everyone was trapped inside their homes. No one was traveling abroad. Before coronavirus, I knew that if ever I missed my mum and dad or I wanted to see my nieces I always had the option to hop on a plane and see them. But all of a sudden, I no longer knew if and when I would see them again. This reliance on technology for human connection and the fear of my family getting ill has really made me look at what it means to be an immigrant and questioning definitions of home and belonging. So although Covid has not had a huge impact on the processes that I use it has provided me with experiences that will directly impact my art practice and research and I’m certain will become present in future projects.
Is there any part of your creative process that has been easier because of the changes COVID has made?
COVID has forced me to think of ways of making that can be done without the reliance on technical equipment which can easily be done from my home or studio. In addition, one of the wonderful things that have come out of COVID-19 is the vast array of artist talks and conferences which have been made available online and for free. I can now join discussions on feminism in San Francisco, listen to my favourite artists talk about their work in New York, watch a book launch in Paris, and participate in conferences in London surrounding decolonizing the curriculum all from the comfort of my living room (typically while bundled up in a blanket and drinking a glass of wine). In a way, coronavirus has brought about the democratization of knowledge. Everyone who has wifi now has access to a wealth of information that was previously only made available to specific groups and for a price. I believe this is something that will continue post-COVID and will hopefully bring attention to and question some of the antiquated belief systems surrounding education and the art world and allow access to anyone who seeks it.
Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers out there?
Never forget why you fell in love with photography in the first place and make your own opportunities. It is so easy to get caught up in the competitive nature of the art world and to lose sight of why you make work. So always remember the magic of photography and create your own opportunities. If you want to exhibit your work don’t wait around for someone to give you a show. Create your own pop-up show in the local pub or your mum’s basement. Some of the most creative and exciting exhibition experiences are pop-up shows that aren’t tainted by the elitism of the pristine white-walled galleries.