illustration by Joe McKendry
For the past ten years, my photographic practice has been deeply connected to the American West, a region that serves as a text for exploring how landscapes—both natural and constructed—influence communities and cultures. I see my bodies of work, for which I use medium and large format analog cameras, as long standing investigations into the impact of geopolitical borders on identity, the urban-rural divide, and human relationships with natural resources. Projects often stretching over years which range from American Backyard to Good Grace, are built on deep, collaborative relationships with my subjects, underpinned by trust and openness. Drawing from my own experiences as an individual of mixed Taiwanese-Anglo-American descent, grappling with questions of belonging, I see photography as a means of exploring, and sometimes challenging, our relationship with the places we call home and their contested histories. My goal is to encourage empathetic connections and bridge gaps in understanding, facilitating a deeper sense of convergence during a time of heightened polarization and ecological collapse.
REPRESENTED by FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
agent contact: matt@fycartists.com
EDUCATION
2011 Savannah College of Art and Design
BFA, Photography, Summa Cum Laude
BOOKS
2024 Landlines featuring Good Grace, M12 x Spector Books
2019 American Backyard, Gnomic Book
2018 Guo Pei: Couture Beyond, Rizzoli
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Geography of Hope, Denver Botanical Gardens, Denver, CO
2020 American Backyard, Museum of Art, Fort Collins, CO
2019 American Backyard, Filter Space, Chicago, IL
2019 American Backyard, MountainFilm Festival, Telluride, CO
2017 The Reckoning Days, Loveland Museum Gallery, Loveland, CO
2016 The Reckoning Days, Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO
2016 At The Gate, Rubber Factory, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Glen Canyon Reemerging, John Wesley Powell Museum, Green River, UT
2022 Nature As Witness, Center for Fine Art Photography, South Platte River, CO
2020 Trump Revolution, Bronx Documentary Center, New York, NY
2020 Frontières, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris, France
2019 The Code of the Earth, Today, LiShui Biennial, LiShui, China
2019 La Frontera de Cristal, Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC), Denver, CO
2019 Border Stories, Pattern, Denver, CO
2019 Showing (work x family), Univ of Colorado, Aurora, CO
2018 Showing (work x family), California State Univ, Turlock, CA
2018 This Land is Your Land, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA
2017 Showing (work x family), Framingham State University, MA
2016 Water: Elemental, Tea Roots Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 Critical Mass, Fotofestiwal Lodz, Lodz, Poland
2016 Cycle, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA
2014 Time To Hit The Road, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Dreams, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
2011 Silver and Ink, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA
AWARDS, GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
2024 Visiting Artist - Savannah College of Art & Design
2024 American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Award Finalist - Best News and Politics Cover
2024 National Magazine Award Finalist - Photography, Best News and Entertainment Story
2023 - 2024 Ted Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism, University of Colorado
2023 - 2024 Fellow, Center for Contemporary Documentation
2020 Landlines Initiative Fellow, M12 Studio
2020 Photo Annual Winner
2019 National Geographic Society Explorer Grantee
2019 PDN 30
2018 FotoRoom Gnomic Book Prize
2018 Palm Photo Prize Shortlist
2018 Society for Photographic Education National Conference, Speaker
2016 PDN, Exposure Award
2015 Critical Mass, Top 50
2014 Gerson-Zevi Land Art Road Trip, Residency, American Southwest
2011 Blurb Photographer Award
SELECT PUBLICATIONS / INTERVIEWS
2024 TIME Magazine, print cover story, “The Coming Storm”
2024 GEO Magazine, print feature, “Glen Canyon Dives On”
2024 Deseret Magazine, May print feature, “Through the Lens: Elliot Ross Photographs”
2024 Ori, vol.2, print feature, “Geography of Hope”
2024 The New York Times, front page print feature, “Colorado’s Bold New Approach to Highways”
2024 Adventure Journal, vol.31, print feature, “When the Rapids Return”
2023 High Country News, February cover story, “The Reveal”
2023 The New York Times, print spotlight, “Inside The Times, What Photographers Saw in 2022”
2022 National Geographic Magazine, special issue: “100 Best Photos - Iconic Images From This Century”
2022 JRNL vol.14, featuring the work “Good Grace”
2022 The New York Times, print feature, “Out From the Underpass”
2022 Deseret Magazine, May print feature “When the Desert Runs Dry”
2022 National Geographic Magazine, January, “2021, The Year in Pictures”
2022 The Atlantic, “Coronavirus Turned a Rural County into a Battleground for Millionaires”
2021 National Geographic Magazine, November, “Small farms battle speculators in drought-stricken Colorado”
2021 Adventure Journal, volume 22, “Single Serving Friends”
2021 National Geographic Magazine, July Cover Story, “A Shady Divide”
2021 The New York Times, print feature, “The New Saturday Night”
2021 The New York Times, print feature, “MDMA vs PTSD”
2021 The New York Times, print feature, “Transformation”
2021 The New Yorker, March print feature, “The Shape of Love”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “America 2020, in Vision and Verse”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “Visions of Optimism In a Disrupted Year, Best Photos of 2020”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “Favorite Art Photos of 2020”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “Life Inside an Assisted Living Facility”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “The New Saturday Night”
2020 The New York Times, print feature, “Kanye, Out West”
2020 NPR/KUNC, Morning Edition
2019 TIME, print cover story, “First Family”
2019 TIME, digital feature: “Beyond the Wall: Traveling the U.S. – Mexico Border”
2019 Wired, “Photographing all 2,000 miles of the U.S. - Mexico Border”
2019 Observer, “What Life Is Like Along All 2,000 Miles of the US-Mexico Border”
2019 Lenscratch, “Elliot Ross: Plainsmen”
2017 Vice Magazine, May, “Under Two Flags: Quiet Activism in the Texas Borderlands”
2017 National Geographic Magazine, March Cover Story, “Vikings”
2016 Vice Magazine, June Cover Story, “At The Gate”
2016 Washington Post, In Sight: “The Arresting Beauty of Life on a Wheat Farm”
2016 The Atlantic, Spotlight, “Faith, Family, and the American Farmer”
2015 The Guardian, “Family, Faith, Floods & Fires: Life for America's Farmers”
2015 National Geographic Magazine, October Cover Story “Almost Human”
2015 National Geographic, “Roadtrips”
2015 The Washington Post, “Speaking of Science”
2015 Wired, “New Ancestor Challenges View of Human Evolution”
SELECT COMMERCIAL CLIENTS
Blue Note Records
Bonobos
Calvin Klein
Carhartt
Rivian
Santa Fe Tourism
Toyota
elliot@elliotstudio.com
+1.917.515.8329