Ellen Nolan

This project was my first large-scale work. Having advertised my flat on an international home swap site, my intention was to travel to a random place, live within a community for six weeks and photograph young native women there. I wished to explore the subject’s relation to the environment and to me as a photographer and outsider.
I chose to photograph young women because of my interest in their nuances of posture and self-presentation. This self-conscious and subtle ‘performance’ was an enactment that I wished to freeze and isolate against the backdrop of their environment. This, along with an interest in the notion human fragility, is an ongoing exploration in my practice.