Ellie Davies enchants us with surreal portraits of forests that glow with mystical fairy lights and ominous waves of mist. The London-based abstract photographer creates her captivating shots in natural areas throughout the UK. With the woods as her canvas, fireflies appear to illuminate desolate clearings, and cascading showers of stars dust dramatically lit patches of trees. Davies creates the dreamy illusions by combining photos of the natural world with images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Davies says she likes to explore images that juxtapose human and natural elements, calling attention to the sharp divide between personal identity and interconnectivity. She does this by positioning out-of-place elements within the context of her landscapes.
“Forests are potent symbols in folklore, fairy tale and myth, places of enchantment and magic as well as of danger and mystery. In more recent history they have come to be associated with psychological states relating to the unconscious,” the artist says. “Against this backdrop, my work explores the ways in which identity is formed by the landscapes we live and grow up in.”
