Found Object: All Thumbs

16_22.jpg

Over the past several years, New York–based artist Scott Daniel Ellison has collected photographs of people who keep raccoons as pets. As he puts it, “I relate to the people and places in these photographs since part of me is guilty of the same desire to capture and own something wild and strange from the forest.” Here, we reproduce 33 photographs from Ellison's collection.

New York–based Scott Daniel Ellison received an M.F.A. in photography from the State University of New York in 2010. His photographs were exhibited at Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery in 2002, and he later became a drawing assistant to artist Sol LeWitt before turning his attention to painting. In 2012, Ellison was awarded a Fellowship in Painting by the New York Foundation of the Arts. Ellison regularly exhibits with Clamp Art in New York; in 2014, he had a solo exhibition at the Matteawan Gallery. His first monograph. “Iowa, Ohio,” was published by Schilt Books in 2014, and his second book, “Witch Hazel,” was published by Clamp Art in 2016. Ellison is inspired by obscure horror films, tales of the macabre, and the Scandinavian folk art he observed while living in Sweden.