Shellenberger’s photographs draw our attention to the gentle hum of nature’s visible and invisible energies, from glowing fireflies to radioactivity to human creativity. His tools include a nineteenth-century, 8x10” camera, old flash bulbs, and uranium in the form vintage Fiesta Ware with orange glaze. An in-depth knowledge about the technical history of photography informs his work as do informal experiments—many, many experiments over the years—employing geometry, physics, and chemistry. Luck and chance play a significant role, too. For Shellenberger, the invention of a process that allows for the creation of an image is as important as the final photographs themselves.

Shellenberger’s work was, most recently, on view in Seeing What Isn’t There at All Street Gallery in New York. His work is included in the forthcoming book The Haunted: Contemporary Photography Conjured in New England, edited by Jocelyn Lee. Photographs and films by Shellenberger have been featured in exhibitions at the ICA-MECA&D, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Space, Concord Art, University of Vermont, University of Southern Maine, and Zero Station. His photographs are in private collections as well as the Judy Glickman Lauder Collection at the Portland Museum of Art.