Place & Thing by Chelsea Bellrose
Place
These photographs were taken over the past two years in towns and cities around Ontario and in Montreal, Quebec. Chelsea Bellrose
I find repetitive patterns that are man-made or accidental pleasing to photograph, and am always interested in how the seasons affect the light and colours available to me; in northern Ontario, a place that was lush and over-saturated in the summer can be pared down to a stark palette come winter.
Having grown up in “the bush,” I notice I am drawn to documenting the architecture and environments of smaller towns, northern spaces, and areas that fit neither the urban or suburban setting.
Thing
Sometimes the atmosphere of a space, or the story of the people who pass through, is not found in a landscape or a portrait, but in the things left behind. I am always looking for opportunities to capture an accidental still life: some stunned minks artfully draped over a flea market table, or the primary colours in a mountain of discarded cigarettes. In photographing these “things,” I hope to tell a fragment of a story, or convey the feeling present within these objects and their surroundings. These photos were taken in a variety of places in Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec between 2015 and 2017.
Chelsea Bellrose is a Canadian artist originally from Sudbury, Ontario who works in illustration/comics, printmaking and analogue photography. She currently live in Pentanguishene.
She uses her work to interpret her surroundings, be it within cities or isolated towns, and the way communities and culture are shaped within them.
Chelsea tries to do this by observing potentially mundane situations in everyday life and finding instances of accidental energy, humour, or beauty. She is always looking for a visual story to tell, even if it happens to be a short one.