'Journey through Jordan', an exhibition by Ellen Christina Hancock

On Friday 12th April, Hackney Downs Studios resident Ellen Christina Hancock is hosting the launch of 'Journey through Jordan'.

The photography exhibition is a selection of breathtaking landscapes, shot during Ellen's travel expeditions through Amman, Jerash, Madaba, Petra and other cities and villages in Jordan in the last year.

Join us from 6-8.30pm for the private view and drinks reception.

'Journey through Jordan'
"In January 2018, hankering for a change of scenery and poised at a turning point in my life, I decided to travel to Jordan.
We began in Amman, Jordan’s capital and one of the oldest cities in the world, now home to almost half the country’s population. Driving north we visited the ancient city of Jerash an extremely well preserved Roman provincial town with colonnaded streets, temples, theatres, and chariot-racing stadiums. Onwards we went to Madaba, the ‘City of Mosaics’ and Mount Nebo the site referenced in the Old Testament as being where Moses saw the Promised Land. We then made our way along the 5,000-year-old King’s Highway to Kerak an ancient Crusader stronghold built for the Holy War against Islam. Continuing our exploration of Crusader castles we headed South and visited Shobak, strategically poised atop a mountain, dominating the rugged landscape.
Moving on, we traveled to Petra, the UNESCO World Heritage Site kept secret for centuries by the local Beduins and only exposed to the West by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. Walking the deep cavernous orange corridors of Petra, scrambling up red bulbous fossilised rocks, navigating secret latent tombs we were humbled by the nature and history around us.
From Petra, we drove to Wadi Rum a vast orange desert that occupies 74,000 acres. Wild and untamed, the luminous sand feels endless and alien with monolithic rock formations breaching the horizon.
Continuing to the southernmost tip of Jordan we visited Aqaba on the Red Sea known for its abundance of preserved coral reefs and, as we found out, Jellyfish. Lastly, we went to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth’s surface and a welcomed final opportunity to forget the weight of the world and myself.
I hope these photographs evoke the same joy and admiration I felt discovering the beauty, history, and kindness of the Jordanians and their country."

About
Ellen Christina Hancock is a freelance photographer and writer based in London documenting architects, designers, buildings, cities, and landscapes. She has have worked for architects, interviewing and photographing the likes of AHMM; Piercy & Co, Morris Architects, Stanton Williams, and Aecom.
Profiles on staff members of The Shard, The Sagrada Familia, The Barbican, The Hepworth Wakefield and Bauhaus Archiv, have given Ellen the opportunity to capture a rare perspective of these globally iconic buildings.
Recently travelling more frequently, Ellen has visited Japan; Berlin, Naples, Copenhagen, and Jordan using her camera to record the people, places, and cultures she has observed.