Nancy Ellison
Nancy Ellison is a celebrated photojournalist and portrait photographer. Her portrait subjects have ranged from world leaders to icons of popular culture. Besides celebrity portraiture, her photojournalism has included photo essays on British forces in Central America, the Mosquito Indians of Honduras and Belize and headhunters in Borneo.
Ms. Ellison’s photography has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, the New York Times and the London Times. Gallery exhibitions include Mary Boone, Taglialatella, Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, Holden Luntz Gallery.
In 1995 The World Press Organization honored her for her portraits of American Ballet Theatre dancers from the book, American Ballet Theatre, Portraits by Nancy Ellison. Her photographs (as well as her paintings) are in both museum and private collections.
Nancy Ellison’s books of her photographs include Wagner’s Eternal Ring, In Classic Style, In Grand Style, Vineyard Days, Vineyard Nights, Starlet, Barbie Live, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet, The Ballet Book, and Becoming a Ballerina.
Her photo exhibitions include: Taglialatella Galleries New York and Palm Beach 2014-5. “Altered Ego” a retrospective of material covering 40 years as a photographer beginning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center (Spring and Summer 2013) and traveling to Houston, Miami and New York City over the course of the next year. The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County selected Ms. Ellison as one of the “Top 10 artists and authors” spring of 2013, “In Classic Style”, May 2008, “In Grand Style”, Sotheby’s, May 2006, “Vineyard Days…Vineyard Nights,” 2003; “Vacancies”, 2001; a One Man Show, 2000, at the Mary Boone Gallery; “Photographs: An Overview”, 1999; Nancy Ellison: Starring Role, 1996; World Press Photo Awards Exhibition in Amsterdam, 1996, which traveled internationally through March, 1997; “Body and Grace”, An American Ballet Theatre Exhibit, Produced by American Ballet Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The World Financial Center and The Metropolitan Opera House.
Ms. Ellison has also turned her interests to Broadway. Her first Broadway venture was as co-producer of 3 Penny Opera, starring Sting. Her credits have included Inherit the Wind, Coram Boy Seafarer, Thurgood and Country Girl.
Ms. Ellison was Deputy Commissioner General for the Expo 2000 World’s Fair where she created, along with her husband William Rollnick, the program “America’s Voices”.
She is a Board Member of the National Trust for the Humanities. Ms. Ellison along with her husband, Bill Rollnick, chaired the International Red Cross Ball for three years. She is a former Director of American Ballet Theatre, The Drawing Center and of the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and a former Commissioner of the Presidential Scholars. Ms. Ellison is Co-Director of the William D. Rollnick and Nancy Ellison Rollnick Foundation, which was established for the support of the Arts.