Ciao,
Γεια σας,
Hello,
It is my goal to bring a sense of wonder to every project I am a part of.
Wonder is a feeling that has always fascinated me. When I was a kid, a sense of wanderlust followed me around like a cloud over my head. I’d thumb through travel magazines and watch documentaries, pretending I was far from home. The images I saw inspired me, made me feel open and curious about the world, and showed me the power of image.
At the age of 15, I began experimenting with black & white film. Photography was a way for me to pause and explore anything I found beautiful or interesting. I went on to earn a B.A. at Purchase College between the School of Art + Design and Environmental Studies, where I created an interdisciplinary course of study.
I am currently based in Italy and working internationally.
I'm Erin Sullivan.
My work moves between real environments and imagined elements, often playing with scale, perception, and place, to create visual worlds that feel both familiar and surreal.
Ciao,
Γεια σας,
Hello,
Artist Statement
I explore wonder through scale and story.
By combining real landscapes, objects, and environments with constructed or miniature elements, I blur the line between real and imagined. My images have a sense of nostalgia — they feel familiar because you were a child once too, imagining something that touches a similar feeling.
In my travel work, I’m most interested in how a place or a subject can be re-seen. By shifting perspective, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically, I invite a slower kind of looking. The images are meant to feel grounded, but not fixed.
At the core of my practice is an ongoing attention to presence and wonder: not as a spectacle, but as a quiet state of noticing. Each project is an opportunity to build a small world that asks someone to pause, look closer, consider. And wonder is the constant.
Origins
Erin Outdoors began in 2014 as a blog, where I shared stories and photography from my travels and time as an adventure guide. Prior to focusing solely on image-making, I was one of the first "influencers" in the outdoor and adventure travel space. Many of the thousands of people in my community on social media have been following me since the very beginning.
In 2020, I began creating miniatures as a way to stay connected to those feelings of wonder and awe while travel was paused due to the Covid pandemic. Quickly, these worlds stuck for me, and became a permanent part of my work.
Rooted in over a decade of travel and storytelling as Erin Outdoors, my current work reflects a deeper focus on visual world-building, intentional creativity, and the art of noticing.
