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| Ellen Felsenthal's passion for photography and animals shows in her choice of office decor: photography books and a cute stuffed goat. |
Photography instructor Ellen Felsenthal’s life is full of activity. From teaching full time to running an animal rescue to taking professional photos, she does what she loves and what she’s passionate about.
After getting three bachelor’s degrees in theater, studio art, and art history from the University of Texas, in Austin, Felsenthal moved to Washington to get her master’s degree in photography at the University of Washington. She teaches six different photography classes here at EvCC and does her own professional photography.
“I like the how tangible a photographic image is,” said Felsenthal. “As a photographer I can make an image that gives other people a view of the way I see the world. I can frame it up or get close or change the focus in a way that shares what I see. I like the realness of it.”
Some of Felsenthal’s photography will be featured in the Russell Day Gallery next October. She says her style of taking pictures is fairly straight and that she’s a “straight shooter”.” She takes photographs for shows, to sell online, and does commissioned pet portraits. She also uses many of her photographs as demonstrations for her classes.
“It’s fun to take something that I’m passionate about and share it in a way that helps other people grow their passion,” said Felsenthal about teaching photography. “I love the academic environment. I love being surrounded by people who are thinking and constantly growing.”
Felsenthal is also the director of New Moon Farm, which is a non-profit animal rescue organization. She started the farm in 1998, after Felsenthal had been working as a zoo keeper and a vet tech simultaneously. Her first rescue was a goat that was going to be euthanized at the Woodland Park Zoo, but she could not stop at rescuing just one.
“One day I looked into my backyard and was like, ‘there’s way too many animals here. Either I need to start adopting them out and finding them homes, or I need to stop taking them in,’ so in ‘99 I kind of founded the farm, gave it a name,” said Feslenthal.
“I just try to live my whole life in as non-destructive of a way as I can. I try to tread softly,” said Felsenthal. “There’s a lot of lessons to learn from animals about patience and living in the moment and all that kinda hippie stuff that actually makes sense. I guess ‘do no harm,’ that’s sort of my hope. To live in the world in a way that doesn’t cause any suffering to any other creature. “
Q&A:
Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Vegan ice cream.
Q: Are you a vegan?
A: Yes. I do not believe we as humans have the right to use animals as a food source. Not health reasons at all, all emotional.
Q: Do you like animals?
A: Obsessively.
Q: What’s your favorite music group?
A: The National.
Q: What’s your favorite outdoor activity?
A: Horseback riding.
Q: What is your favorite class to teach?
A: I like teaching the very beginning Photo 110 class because of the variety of students that take it and it’s kind of fun to get people started in photography. But I also love teaching the thesis class which is the very end class before students graduate because it kind of puts together all the pieces of what they’ve done in the program and it's amazing to see how much people grow in two years. So I guess my favorites are the very first one and the very last one.
Q: What is one thing you want to do before you die?
A: One thing that I want to do that I’m going to do this summer is go on a horse trek across Mongolia. That’s been on my list and I’m gonna check it off this summer. It’s a three week horseback trek to see the nomadic reindeer herders near Siberia.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: Green.
A day in the life of Ellen:
“I typically wake up, do two hours worth of chores in the morning. Take a shower come to work, spend a full day here teaching and doing all my other teacher stuff and then I go home and do two or three more hours of chores and then I get online and answer all the emails and phone calls and update the Facebook page and check the website and then it's time for bed."
After getting three bachelor’s degrees in theater, studio art, and art history from the University of Texas, in Austin, Felsenthal moved to Washington to get her master’s degree in photography at the University of Washington. She teaches six different photography classes here at EvCC and does her own professional photography.
“I like the how tangible a photographic image is,” said Felsenthal. “As a photographer I can make an image that gives other people a view of the way I see the world. I can frame it up or get close or change the focus in a way that shares what I see. I like the realness of it.”
Some of Felsenthal’s photography will be featured in the Russell Day Gallery next October. She says her style of taking pictures is fairly straight and that she’s a “straight shooter”.” She takes photographs for shows, to sell online, and does commissioned pet portraits. She also uses many of her photographs as demonstrations for her classes.
“It’s fun to take something that I’m passionate about and share it in a way that helps other people grow their passion,” said Felsenthal about teaching photography. “I love the academic environment. I love being surrounded by people who are thinking and constantly growing.”
Felsenthal is also the director of New Moon Farm, which is a non-profit animal rescue organization. She started the farm in 1998, after Felsenthal had been working as a zoo keeper and a vet tech simultaneously. Her first rescue was a goat that was going to be euthanized at the Woodland Park Zoo, but she could not stop at rescuing just one.
“One day I looked into my backyard and was like, ‘there’s way too many animals here. Either I need to start adopting them out and finding them homes, or I need to stop taking them in,’ so in ‘99 I kind of founded the farm, gave it a name,” said Feslenthal.
"It feels really good to think back and
go, 'Wow, we saved 1,200 lives.'
Even if they are goat lives."
Currently at the six acre New Moon Farm, Felsenthal has four cats, three dogs, three sheep, 44 goats, two donkeys, and two horses. All of them are rescue animals. Since the start of the organization, they have saved about 1,200 animals. Right now Felsenthal is busy organizing the farm’s big fundraiser called the "Goatalympics” which will happen on July 6th at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds.
“I just try to live my whole life in as non-destructive of a way as I can. I try to tread softly,” said Felsenthal. “There’s a lot of lessons to learn from animals about patience and living in the moment and all that kinda hippie stuff that actually makes sense. I guess ‘do no harm,’ that’s sort of my hope. To live in the world in a way that doesn’t cause any suffering to any other creature. “
Q&A:
Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Vegan ice cream.
Q: Are you a vegan?
A: Yes. I do not believe we as humans have the right to use animals as a food source. Not health reasons at all, all emotional.
Q: Do you like animals?
A: Obsessively.
Q: What’s your favorite music group?
A: The National.
Q: What’s your favorite outdoor activity?
A: Horseback riding.
Q: What is your favorite class to teach?
A: I like teaching the very beginning Photo 110 class because of the variety of students that take it and it’s kind of fun to get people started in photography. But I also love teaching the thesis class which is the very end class before students graduate because it kind of puts together all the pieces of what they’ve done in the program and it's amazing to see how much people grow in two years. So I guess my favorites are the very first one and the very last one.
Q: What is one thing you want to do before you die?
A: One thing that I want to do that I’m going to do this summer is go on a horse trek across Mongolia. That’s been on my list and I’m gonna check it off this summer. It’s a three week horseback trek to see the nomadic reindeer herders near Siberia.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: Green.
A day in the life of Ellen:
“I typically wake up, do two hours worth of chores in the morning. Take a shower come to work, spend a full day here teaching and doing all my other teacher stuff and then I go home and do two or three more hours of chores and then I get online and answer all the emails and phone calls and update the Facebook page and check the website and then it's time for bed."
Story by Lily Haight
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