Internationally acclaimed fine-art photographer Ella McBride (1862-1965) played an important role in the Northwest's photography community and was a key figure in the national and international pictorialist photography movements. Despite her many accomplishments, which include managing the photography studio of Edward S. Curtis for many years and being an early member of the Seattle Camera Club, McBride is little known today.

Captive Light: The Life and Photography of Ella E. McBride reconsiders her career and the larger pictorialist movement in the Northwest. The book accompanies an exhibition co-curated by David F. Martin, a Seattle gallerist and leading art historian on Northwest artists of the early twentieth century, and Margaret E. Bullock, curator of collections and special exhibitions at Tacoma Art Museum. Captive Light is part of the Tacoma Art Museum's Northwest Perspective Series on significant Northwest artists.