instability | Aaron Ellison and Eric Zeigler

Image Credit: Aaron Ellison and Eric Zeigler, Detail of Multiple Breaks (Sorbus alnifolia), Yeongsil Trail, Hallasan National Park, Jeju Island, Republic of Korea | Digital Aerochrome, 2024

A photographic collaboration between Aaron Ellison and Eric Zeigler titled instability will be exhibited this summer through September 17 in the Dr. James & Lynne LaCalle Chesapeake Gallery located in the Chesapeake Welcome Center at Harford Community College.

These large-format photographs stem from a decade-long artistic relationship linking art and science. Using contemporary versions of 19th-century dry collodion glass plates, 20th-century film, and new digital technologies, Ellison and Zeigler challenge the assumption that photographs and digital images portray an objective reality.

Their photographs explore modern ecosystems which have been deemed healthy and stable and show them to be far from stable and unchanging, The essence of their ongoing and essential decay, normally hidden behind an opaque yet gossamer fog, is unveiled in instability.

Eric Zeigler is an artist, designer, and researcher whose current work involves photography and the unconventional transformation of images. He earned an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and exhibits his work nationally and internationally. Zeigler is an Assistant Professor of Art in the Department of Art at the University of Toledo.

Aaron Ellison retired in July 2021 after 20 years as the Senior Research Fellow in Ecology at Harvard University. Following a sabbatical year at Harvard in 2001-2002, Aaron spent 20 years at the Harvard Forest, Harvard’s 1500-hectare outdoor classroom and laboratory for ecological research, and has continued his ecological research after retiring. He also maintains an art studio dedicated to woodworking, photography, and poetry within the Artisan’s Asylum in Allston/Brighton, Massachusetts.

A closing reception will be held on September 17 from 5 to 6:30 PM in the LaCalle Chesapeake Gallery.

The LaCalle Chesapeake Gallery is located on the first floor of the Chesapeake Welcome Center on Harford Community College’s campus at 401 Thomas Run Road in Bel Air. Parking is free. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 6 PM.