A tireless traveler and photographer, renowned cellist and renowned doctor, Elaine Ling who passed away last August was an adventurer. Born in Hong Kong, she lived in Canada since the age of nine. That’s when she discovered the great Canadian outdoors, and her attraction to nature.
She studied piano, cello and … medicine. With a Doctor degree from the University of Toronto, she worked among the different peoples of the First North and Northwest Nations of Canada and then on the other side of the world in Abu Dhabi and Nepal. Looking for lonely deserts, abandoned architectures and ancient cultures, Elaine Ling explored the delicate balance between nature and man. She photographed the deserts of Mongolia, Namibia, South Africa, India, South America, or Australia, but also the citadels of Persepolis, Machu Picchu, Angkor, and the Buddhist centers in Laos, Tibet and Bhutan … and managed to capture this dialogue. In southwestern Namibia, ten kilometers away from the Atlantic coast, mounted on a small hill, stands Kolmanskop, an abandoned mining town.
The sand rushes everywhere, through doors, windows, roofs gaping holes … covering gradually all traces of human presence, that of German miners. In these photos, no human is visible and while the classic tourist photos of Kolmanskop show us absence, her work highlights presence.
Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert
September 15 to October 12, 2016
Galerie VU’
58 rue Saint-Lazare
75009 Paris
France
www.galerievu.com
