Biography
The work of Véronique Ellena can be characterized by her ability to understand others intimately and to appreciate them. This can be seen in her representations of everyday scenes of the 1990s. This talent is tangible in the recent landscape series started in 2005. Her empathy with nature appears as intense as with human beings, as expressed in the series Ceux qui ont la foi (Those who have faith).
The spirituality of the world we live in is the center of the artist's photographic preoccupations. Yet this spirituality should not be regarded as religious; it rather evokes the pagan conception of mankind living in harmony with the universe. Mystery also inhabits these pictures and the desire to capture a fleeting and immaterial moment.
Véronique Ellena continued this quest in her last series, completed during her stay in Rome as an artist-in-residence at the Villa Medicis. The series Les natures mortes (Still lifes) consists of frontal photographs of objects appearing in all their humble magnificence, even though their approaching alteration can already be felt.
