The Lake House is a series of digital collages that were created by layering gelli-plate prints over old family photos taken over multiple generations throughout the 20th century.

The Lake House is a physical and symbolic gathering place for a family. Its origins can only be gleaned through the foggy lens of memory and shared stories. It is a thread connecting people who will never meet, and which keeps them tied to those they’ve known and lost. Its future is uncertain, threatened by development, changing lifestyles, and the ever-widening distance between family members through time and geographic space. It puts down roots that have grown deep and diverged.

About Ellen Van Benschoten

i create art across multiple mediums and styles. i am inspired by layers: those material and immaterial elements that construct the individual, their experience and environment. by experimenting with form, color, material, tools, everyday objects, found images, etc. i aim to bring attention to tensions, such as those between: what is clear and distorted; inherited and self-made; self and other; funny and sad, dreamt and seen…

i was born in New York City and currently live and work in Berlin.