Elaine Ling was an exuberant adventurer, traveler, and photographer who felt most at home backpacking her view camera across the great deserts of the world and sleeping under the stars. Born in Hong Kong, she grew up in Canada and studied the piano, the cello and medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Toronto, and practiced family medicine among various First Nations peoples in Canadaʼs North and Pacific Northwest as well as on the other side of the world, in Abu Dhabi and Nepal.

Sadly, Elaine Ling passed away in August of this year after a long illness. One of her last projects was working on Habitación Cubana, her contribution to our One Picture Book series. This vibrant and colorful book comprises seven pairs of photographs made in Cuba on two separate trips: the first in 2002, and the second in 2015. In each of the pairs, Ling presents a chosen subject in black and white, and again thirteen years later in color. The double layers of time and color create diptychs that can be contemplated endlessly, always with new discoveries to be made. The last pair of images in the book substitutes a signed, original color print in lieu of the reproduction.

Elaine Lingʼs photographs have been widely exhibited and published, and are included in the permanent collections of museums around the world, including those of he Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France; Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal; Scavi Scaligeri International Centre of Photography, Verona, Italy; Fototeca de Cuba, Havana; Lishui Museum of Photography; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.