Emily Vallee

Emily Vallee holds an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a BA from the University of Vermont. He work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the Vermont Center for Photography, the Atlantic Wharf Gallery, Boston and the Pro-Natura Center, Champ-Pittet, Switzerland. She was recently published online at Boooooom Art, Lamono Magazine and Phases Magazine. Vallee currently lives and works in Saratoga Springs, NY she is part-time faculty at Skidmore College and Arts Instructor and Gallery Assistant at 70 Beekman Gallery.

Of Blood & Bone

Of Blood & Bone asks if we can shift, if for only a moment, away from our human condition, to imagine what it may be like to breathe through a different set of lungs or to feel the damp earth wedge between the cracks of our skin. It aims to spur a cognition of sorts, to kindle biophilia and opportunity arises from the images to imagine a primal, perhaps more animalistic version of ourselves.

For the past two years and long before, I have been returning to the forests of New England, primarily of Vermont, Massachusetts and upstate New York. Influenced by my upbringing in a farming family in northern Vermont, making images always begins with my often indescribable bond to the natural world. The forest, hunting and farming, I find, are rife with metaphors for larger ideas about life and its complexities. In my practice, I make photographs with the notion that the camera is an extension of my body. Recording the marks and traces left upon the land, such as the nest or den, is central to the work. These sites and evidence of the cycles of birth, survival and death are pieced together like fragments of a constellation. A perception is uncovered that feels immediate and primary, pushing against a more preconceived version of nature.

To view more of Emily’s work please visit her website.