The beauty of these photographs is undeniable. It's as if the beauty of these portraits invites us to revisit our own humanity, to reflect on the emotions we share with other living beings. In every detail of each portrait there is a story, an expression of life.
—Photoreporter magazine (France)
The work of Elliot Ross [is] astonishing.
On the museum walls, these portraits seem incredibly alive, as if each had consciously posed for the photographer. The effect is as fascinating as it is unsettling…. They all seem to emerge from a strange universe, at once dark and alluring.
—Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir (Belgium)
“Other Animals feels separate to what we’ve seen before. Visually the black and white images paint the subjects in this silver haze, taking them out of their surroundings and habitat and placing them behind a black and white roll of film, we are able to look at animals in another light.
We are made aware of the animal conscious in each image with each page turn, and with our eyes catching the glance of the animal, the notion of understanding one another begins to form.
Part of Other Animals' strength is how we react and interact with the images, animals big and small, to wow and intrigue us. It is with this level of intrigue we organise each animal within our heads, which one could be a companion or a threat. Each animal comes towards us from a deep black background.... We are alone with them, isolated in each portrait. Left to look closer, and see if we can draw more from the animal than the judgements and humanisation we place upon them.
The gap between the animal and the human is felt within Other Animals, the space allowed on each page around the subjects provides moments of contemplation, and not only of how curious we can be of the natural world, but what part we have to play in this world alongside these animals.”
—Harry Rose, Darwin Magazine (UK)
—Xavier Canonne, "Fierce Beauties," introduction to the
catalog for Elliot Ross: Seeing Animals
Face to face with the animal portraits of the American photographer Elliot Ross, you experience the tension between us and creatures of other species. When you enter the refectory of the former Carmelite convent that is the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, you are prompted to contemplate. In the black-and-white portraits of Elliot Ross (1947), a selection from his series Animal, Other Animals, and Animal Studies (2007-2015), there are no colors or elements from the environment that demand attention. There are only the stunning appearances themselves.
—An Devroe, OKV magazine (Belgium)
Wildlife Photography and Portraiture: Two Contradictory Genres? This is the question that the Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi addresses by exhibiting the work of Elliot Ross. Gathered under the title "Seeing Animals,” his poetic black and white portraits are on display until May 26, 2024
With "Seeing Animals," Elliot Ross succeeds in bringing together all the aesthetics of studio portrait photography with animal models.
It is this aesthetic, that makes us look at the models photographed differently….
In those eyes, in that gesture, you would think you recognized something human. And it is in this mirroring that the photographer does that pushes us to observe each detail more carefully...and to recognize, finally, in the other, a surprisingly familiar face.
—Baptiste Thery-Guilbert, Phototrend Magazine (France)
Have you ever recognized yourself in the eyes of a sparrow? That of a hyena? Feeling taken aback by the questioning face of a fish? This is the disturbing experience offered by the exhibition Seeing Animals, presented at the Musée de la Photographie Charleroi. It unveils the work of the American photographer Elliot Ross, whose animal images, taken in the manner of portraits of human beings, question our condition, and more broadly our relationship with nature.
Here a hyena emerges from the half-light, there a seal swims in unfathomable waters...like so many nocturnal, even dreamlike apparitions. "I realized that my images resembled dreams. I isolate these creatures like those that appear in our dreams." But they are real.
—Clémence Ménart, LM Magazine (France)
In his new book Crows Ascending, Elliot Ross captures the haunting beauty of flying crows as he observed them from the rooftop of his San Francisco apartment during the years of the pandemic. Presented in a beautifully produced book, this [is a] deeply contemplative series.
—Focus Magazine (Netherlands)
—Barbara Tannenbaum, Curator of Photography, Cleveland Museum of Art
Crows Ascending is a poignant photographic series by Elliot Ross, featuring a series of striking duotone images of crows in flight, captured from his apartment in San Francisco during the pandemic. The project, born from isolation and personal loss, evolved into a meditation on movement, transformation, and memory.
Elliot Ross is a photographer whose work explores the inter-sections of nature, abstraction, and human perception. Ross’s approach to photography often focuses on animals, capturing them in ways that transcend mere documentation. His acclaimed books reflect his deep engagement with the visual and symbolic nature of the world around us.
—Martin Kaninsky, about photography (Prague)