BOOKS
selected monographs
LENA HERZOG
by Giuseppe Barbieri and Silvia Burini
This first comprehensive monograph on the work of Lena Herzog is an exhaustive review of three decades of activity, described in essays by professors Silvia Burini and Giuseppe Barbieri of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
Lena Herzog’s undaunted and engaging look spans over boundaries and chasms between different levels of life, time, and memory. Her work investigates the universal mystery of being human, from the Cabinets of Wonder and Curiosities of the 18th and 19th centuries to the hollowed out rock formations atop of tepuis in Amazonia, from the deep rituals of the West to the emptiness of nameless lands in the Far East. The various portfolios, here transversally arranged, provide a fascinating cartography of our time and history.
Through innovative experimentation, Lena Herzog fuses Renaissance engraving practices, early techniques of developing and printing photographic images, and cutting edge virtual reality and immersive technologies. In her latest projects, she confronts and denounces the extinction of thousands of languages and foretells the possible and final collapse of the planet. These are images between shadow and light, which, as in Goya, pursue the truth of things, gestures, and faces, and in which we find echoes of her childhood phantoms at the foothills of the Ural Mountains.
STRANDBEEST: THE DREAM MACHINES OF THEO JANSEN
by Lena Herzog
With essay by Lawrence Weschler
Second Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)
For seven years, photographer and artist Lena Herzog followed the evolution of a new kinetic species. Intricate as insects but with bursts of equine energy, the “Strandbeests,” or “beach creatures,” are the creation of Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who has been working for nearly two decades to generate these new life-forms that move, and even survive, on their own. This tribute showcases Jansen’s imaginative vision, a mesmerizing encounter with whole new ideas of existence.
STRANDBEEST: THE DREAM MACHINES OF THEO JANSEN
by Lena Herzog
With essay by Lawrence Weschler
Published in 2014 by TASCHEN in conjunction with the exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, MA, Chicago Art Center, IL and Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
“And that is exactly what Lena Herzog has done, quite movingly, with the beach beasts of Theo Jansen. She’s photographed them as you would photograph a beloved friend or a dog that you’ve lived with for many years. Herzog’s photographs are not so much acts of documentation as acts of tenderness.”
—Morgan Meis
The Smart Set
STRANDBEEST: THE DREAM MACHINES OF THEO JANSEN
by Lena Herzog
With essay by Lawrence Weschler
Available exclusively from iTunes in this eBook edition
This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Multi-touch books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Books with interactive features may work best on an iOS device. iBooks on your Mac requires OS X 10.9 or later.
immersive experience in art, science and design
LOST SOULS
by Lena Herzog
With essays by Luc Sante and Graham Burnett
“If her theme is macabre, Herzog’s vision is vigorously redemptive, reanimating flesh with light, surrounding faces with incandescent auras. Even as it exposes them, light seems to emanate from some of the specimens, as if a transubstantiation had occurred; Herzog exalts what Christian church authorities once condemned as an unholy practice, conveying something close to ecstasy. While she cannot pose her subjects, she casts them in blatant religious iconography. Light refracted through liquid splashes halos on faces, and captures one in the attitude of supplication. In these photographs illumination is so pure and radiant it recalls the paintings of Caravaggio, velvety blacks and glowing whites joined in dramatic chiaroscuro.”
—Kathryn Harrison
The New York Times Book Review
Lost Souls records Lena Herzog’s journey into a world rarely seen by outsiders. Having been granted access to the early cabinets Wunderkammern and to the first medical museums, Herzog has photographed these mysteries with a sense of beauty, wonder and tenderness. Her subjects are mostly infants born with genetic defects that prevented their survival, and although they have been preserved as scientific specimens, some for hundreds of years, they are profoundly transformed through Herzog’s lens into beings who mirror our own longings, fears and existential dilemmas.
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FLAMENCO DANCE CLASS
by Lena Herzog
With essays by Ignacio de Cossio
FLAMENCO comes from a lively tradition of dance which dates back to ancient times, although its origins remain obscure. It is, however, possible to trace a link to Oriental, African and Spanish forms of dance, developed by the gypsies who have lived in the provinces of Cadiz and Seville in Andalusia since the 15th century.
TAUROMAQUIA: THE ART OF BULLFIGHTING
by Lena Herzog
With essays by Juvenal Acosta and Ignacio de Cossio
translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa
TAUROMAQUIA An album of 100 black and white photographs by Lena Herzog.
TAUROMAQUIA is divided into three chapters: Breeding, At the Gate and Arena, analogous to the three stages or tercios of the classical bullfight.
TAUROMAQUIA presents powerful and compelling images of the world of bullfighting, which reinforce the festivals central importance in Spanish culture.
PILGRIMS: BECOMING THE PATH ITSELF
by Lena Herzog
With an essay by Werner Herzog
PILGRIMS covers two auspicious for Buddhism events that took place in 2002.
Lena Herzog
The Bad Lieutenant
Port of Call: New Orleans
book of stills from the film by Werner Herzog by the same title
In this book devoted to the film, renowned photographer Lena Herzog’s documentation of the film captures the uniqueness of the director’s vision, the set, and the actors. The volume also includes the script, written by Billy Finkelstein, reworked by Herzog.