Elaine Ling

Elaine Ling (DECEMBER 19, 1946 – AUGUST 1, 2016) was an exuberant adventurer, traveler, and photographer who was most at home backpacking her view camera across the great deserts of the world and sleeping under the stars. Ling’s photographs, widely exhibited and published, are in the permanent collections of numerous museum and private collections including the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France; Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal; Scavi Scaligeri International Centre of Photography, Verona, Italy; Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; Fototeca de Cuba, Havana; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada; the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Her international publications include work in View Camera, Photo Technique International, The Polaroid Book, Italian Zoom Magazine, and Aperture.

Born in Hong Kong, Elaine Ling moved to Canada at the age of nine. Since receiving her medical degree from the University of Toronto, she practiced family medicine among various First Nations peoples in Canada’s North and Pacific Northwest as well as on the other side of the world, in Abu Dhabi and Nepal. When not traveling, Dr. Ling practiced family medicine in Toronto and played cello in a community orchestra.