The Perceiver and the Perceived

The name of this flag is inspired by a Thich Nhat Hanh quote — “Perception means the coming into existence of the perceiver and the perceived.”

My photographic work focuses on capturing embodied human emotionality, especially relating to mental health and gender-based experiences. I choose photography to create most of this work because a photograph implies objective reality. 

Chelsea Ellis is an emerging photographic artist who was born and raised in Maine. Growing up quiet and guarded, she has always been drawn to introspective imagery and portraiture. Her interests led her to study art at the University of Southern Maine. She received her degree in photography in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2018 when she began building photographic images using her body, paint, and digital subtraction.

She has exhibited her photographic work at the Harlow Gallery, in the contemporary art series “Process” by AMPL Art Consulting, and the community art project and publication “A Possible Practice”. In October 2021, Chelsea was the artist resident at the Abbott-Watts Residency for Photography at Monson Arts.

Today, Chelsea works and lives with her partner in Rockland, Maine.