Fonds - Elaine Ling Fonds

Photographer Elaine Ling was born in Hong Kong in 1946, and immigrated to Canada when she was nine with her family. She studied music and medicine, and obtained a medical degree from the University of Toronto. Ling practiced family medicine around the world, including Abu Dhabi, Nepal, and both urban and remote places in Canada.

Ling continued to practice family medicine in the Greater Toronto Area during her life, and played cello in the community orchestra, Orchestra Toronto. She was an accomplished musician who also played the piano, baritone, oboe, and guitar. She was also a fellow at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. The University of Ryerson offers a Research Fellowship in her name for students pursuing photography after receiving a generous donation from Ling. She passed away in 2016 from lung cancer.

Her love for open space, stone, and nature propelled her to seek out places of solitude and places with ancient architecture. Her travels brought her across four continents, capturing the landscapes and beauty of Mongolia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Timbuktu, Namibia, North Africa, India, South America, Australia, American Southwest; the citadels of Ethiopia, San Agustin, Persepolis, Petra, Cappadocia, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Great Zimbabwe, Abu Simbel; and the Buddhist centers of Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, and Bhutan.

Ling’s photography - which is predominantly in Black & White - explores the shifting balance between man-made and nature. Her work has been exhibited all around the world, published in a multitude of collections, and is part of many public institutions' permanent fine art collections. In Canada, her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ryerson University, Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. She has also published four books of her art: Mongolia, Land of the Deer Stone (2009), Talking Stones (2015), Cuba Chronicles (2015), and Habitacion Cubana (2016).