Join us for the gallery opening of "Where Land Meets Living"!
Dec. 4 | 1-2 p.m. | The Union, Warren Second Floor Lounge
Meet Ella, a senior Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communications major at JMU with minors in Creative Writing and Film Studies. She’s excited to share her collection of work captured in Italy during a family vacation, titled, “Where Land Meets Living”.
For Ella, photography is a family business, having learned from her mother who took photos in college and working for her father’s newspaper in Long Island, NY. Although Ella started her photography journey her senior year of high school, she didn’t take it seriously until she began working for The Breeze as a photojournalist, continuing to follow in her mom’s footsteps. Ella dived into her photography headfirst, finding joy in capturing the human experience, focusing on taking a step back and looking at the little moments that surround us.
At the end of her study abroad program in London, all of Ella’s sisters were in Europe at the same time. This made it easy for their mom to fly in and join them for a family trip to Italy. The family visited Lake Como and its surrounding area — the scene for this gallery collection — which may look familiar to some, as the setting appears in the second Star Wars film, “Attack of the Clones”, an important detail for Ella, who is a lifelong Star Wars fan.
What stood out to Ella the most in Italy was the architecture. “The Italians have built into the world around them instead of decimating it, but then also showcasing the natural beauty of the Earth that they built in.” Throughout her collection, Ella works with the natural landscape in her own way, allowing it to frame many of her photographs.
When asked what she hopes audiences take away from her work, she said, “I really wanted to showcase how intentional Italy is in protecting the environment and their natural land, how they've lived there for thousands of years. They’re just so respectful of the land they live in, and it’s so bright and full of life.”
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