Elena is a documentary photographer and strategy consultant. Having grown up in Kosovo in the aftermath of the ‘99 war and worked in refugee camps in the Middle East following the Arab Spring, her art is inspired by the often misunderstood quiet moments experienced by those in over-sensationalised environments. She seeks out stillnesses, believing colour and beauty inform our truth.
She studied as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, earning an MSc in Economic and Social History and an MBA, and went on to become the first the Artist-in-Residence for the Trust.

Gallina’s methodology as a photographer is co-creative in nature: to offset historic power imbalances between photographer and “subject” Gallina treats the creation of portraits as a shared process, wherein subjects arrange themselves, have control of image selection, and images are taken in their natural space. Her work spans a dozen countries in the past decade and when she’s not painting or reading or photographing–she can be found running trails in the mountains.