Elaine Ling

Courtesy Galerie VU / © Elaine Ling

Canadian Photographer | Born: 1946 - Died: 2016

Elaine Ling was an exuberant adventurer, traveler, and photographer who was most at home backpacking her view camera across the great deserts of the world and sleeping under the stars. Born in Hong Kong, Elaine Ling has lived in Canada since the age of nine. Upon arrival in Canada, Elaine was exhilarated by the freedom of space and began her attraction to Stone and places of Nature. She studied the piano, the cello and medicine. Since receiving her medical degree from the University of Toronto, she has practiced family medicine among various First Nations peoples in Canada's North and Pacific Northwest as well as on the other side of the world, in Abu Dhabi and Nepal.

Seeking the solitude of deserts and abandoned architectures of ancient cultures, Elaine Ling has explored the shifting equilibrium between nature and the man-made across four continents. Photographing in the deserts of Mongolia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Timbuktu, Namibia, North Africa, India, South America, Australia, American Southwest; the citadels of Ethiopia, San Agustin, Persepolis, Petra, Cappadocia, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Great Zimbabwe, Abu Simbel; and the Buddhist centres of Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, and Bhutan; she has captured that dialogue.

Ling's photographs, widely exhibited and published, are in the permanent collections of numerous museum and private collections including the Biblioth�que Nationale, Paris, France; Mus�e de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal; Scavi Scaligeri International Centre of Photography, Verona, Italy; Fototeca de Cuba, Havana; Lishui Museum of Photography; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Brooklyn Museum, New York; SE Museum of photography, Florida, the Cleveland

In Canada, Ling is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ryerson University, Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Her international publications include work in View Camera, Photo Technique International, The Polaroid Book, Italian Zoom Magazine, Orion Magazine, Viktor Magazine, BMJ and Aperture.

When not photographing, Dr. Ling practiced family medicine in Toronto and played cello in Orchestra Toronto, a community orchestra. She was a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Any books ordered will be filled by Edward Pong, her brother, thru his website ultraanaloguerecordings.com

Agency:

Galerie VU

Website:

elaineling.ca

Selected Work:

Selected Books:

Talking Stones

Author: Elaine Ling

Publisher: Kehrer Verlag

Year: 2016 - Pages: 144

For thirty years, photographer Elaine Ling wandered through deserts, canyons and jungles across four continents gathering the mythology of stones. This book offers a stunning global view of a very unique presentation of natural and ancient stones, from the Joshua Tree to a Chinese tomb, from the ruins of Petra in Jordan to the junge of Myanmar, from Cappadocia to Australia's Kangaroo Island. Listen to the polyphonic voice of Talking Stones.

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Baobab: Tree of Generations

Author: Elaine Ling

Publisher: Photo-eye editions

Baobab: Tree of Generations is a limited edition portfolio of twelve 11x14" pigment ink prints from Elaine Ling's acclaimed series of photographs of these magnificent trees from Madagascar, Mali and Limpopo, Africa. The Edition is limited to 30 portfolios.
Using the now discontinued 4x5 Polaroid positive/negative material with its distinctive edges, Ling's photographs capture the dramatic nature of these monumental trees. For this portfolio, the images are bled to the edges of the paper. Also included is an essay by Kevin Miller, Director, Southeast Museum of Photography.
This is the fifth publication in our photo-eye Editions series of contemporary photographers' projects. Housed in a beautiful, engraved aluminum box, the work is exquisitely printed on 11x14" Hahnem�hle Photo Rag Baryta paper. These prints may easily be framed using our matching German-made, magnetic aluminum shadow-box frames. Please inquire about these wonderful frames

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Mongolia

Author: Elaine Ling

Publisher: Lodima Press

Mongolia: Land of the Deer Stone is a visually stunning collection of Elaine Ling's photography. The book's sumptuous, oversized book contains 180 pages, with 116 photographs printed from 4x5 Polaroid negatives on heavy cover stock. Dr. Alison Devine Nordstrom, Curator of Photographs at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, wrote the introduction. Her engrossing text introduces Ling's elegant, deceptively spare photographs. She explains why and how their intimately, lyrical documentation of Mongolia's vast, half-million square miles of desert and nomadic people is notable. For six years between 2002 and 2008 photographer Elaine Ling explored a culture whose roots were established some 700 years ago, in the 13th century under the rule Chinggis Khan. During her five trips to Mongolia's Gobi Desert Ling searched for and subsequently photographed Deer Stones, Turkic Stones and the shamanistic stone makers, known as ovoos. Known for her interest in deserts, Ling's work is characterized by minimal compositions of light and form often mimicking the impactful, yet paradoxically simple desert landscape. Her passion for simple forms and scenes led her to the Gobi in search of a subject scattered throughout: ancient stones. In the process, her impassioned journey and warm nature opened the hearts and homes of people she encountered. It is this unique access that gives the audience a look at a culture currently experiencing a rebirth of Buddhist traditions nearly lost under Soviet suppression. Commanding and intimate, Mongolia: Land of the Desert is a pictorial tribute to a magical and mysterious land, its people, and their traditions. Elaine's Ling's compassionate collection provides a breathtaking and revealing peak into a rich culture against an astonishing backdrop of desert, high plains, and mountains.

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