Elena Herzog (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Pisetski; born in 1970) is a

Russian-American Russian Americans ( rus, русские американцы, r=russkiye amerikantsy, p= ˈruskʲɪje ɐmʲɪrʲɪˈkant͡sɨ) are Americans of full or partial Russians, Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian diaspora, Russian imm ...

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

and photographer.

Biography

Elena Pisetski was born in Sverdlovsk, in what was then the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, in 1970. She moved to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1987 to attend the Philological Faculty of

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

, where she studied languages (English and Spanish) and literature. In 1990, she emigrated to the United States and graduated with a degree in philosophy from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

, specializing in the

history and philosophy of science The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an Discipline (academia), academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the History of science and technology, history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained ...

. Herzog was also a research consultant at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. She started taking photographs in 1997 and studied photographic printing techniques with Italian printer Ivan Dalla Tana in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and later with French printer Marc Valesella. Herzog combines some of the very early photographic

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...

processes with contemporary and her own techniques to achieve her desired effects. Herzog's work ranges from classical documentary to the experimental and conceptual and has been published and reviewed in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'','' The

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', ''

Harper’s Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', '' El Mundo'' '' The Believer'', ''The British Journal of Photography'', and ''Cabinet'', among others. Her work has been exhibited at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

Pasadena Museum of California Art The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) was an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States, showcasing art and design originating from California. The museum was founded by long-time Pasadena residents and art collectors Robert ...

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...

(San Francisco), the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

(New York), and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, among others. Herzog is an American citizen,

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1999. Since 1995, she has lived in California with her husband, German filmmaker

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

. They have collaborated on several projects including a book of stills from the film ''

Bad Lieutenant ''Bad Lieutenant'' is a 1992 American neo-noir crime film directed by Abel Ferrara. The film stars Harvey Keitel as the titular "bad lieutenant" as well as Victor Argo and Paul Calderón. The screenplay was co-written by Ferrara with actress-mod ...

'' which was published by Rizzoli in 2009. Werner Herzog wrote the introduction to Lena's book ''Pilgrims'', which was released in 2002. Her book ''Strandbeest: the Dream Machines of Theo Jansen'' was published by TASCHEN in 2014. Herzog has authored six books / monographs of photography. In 2016, Herzog's complex video/audio installation ''Last Whispers: Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree'', in which she collaborated with composer and director Marco Capalbo and sound designer

Mark Mangini Mark Mangini (born 1956) is an American sound editor with over 125 film credits. He won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Sound Editing along with David White for their work on '' Mad Max: Fury Road''. Mangini is renowned for recording and ed ...

, premiered at the British Museum in the Living and Dying Gallery adjacent to the

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...

. A film and surround-sound experience that incorporates

archival An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

recordings of

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

s, ''Last Whispers'' began a world tour in 2019.Woolfe, Zachary (October 11, 2019).
Dying Languages Cry Out in ‘Last Whispers’
. ''New York Times''. Retrieved October 12, 2019. Print version, October 12, p. C5.

Bibliography

Books

* ''Strandbeest. The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen'' (2014) * ''Lost Souls'' (2010) * ''Bad Lieutenant'' (2009) * ''Flamenco: Dance Class'' * ''Tauromaquia: The Art of Bullfighting'' * ''Pilgrims'' (2002)

Exhibitions

* ''Panoramas'', Fahey / Klein Gallery, Los Angeles (2012) * ''Lost Souls'', International Center of Photography (2010) * ''The Circle of Bliss'', Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2003) * ''Reflecting Buddha'', Pasadena Museum of California Art (2003) * ''Ensayo,'' (multimedia show) Yerba Buena Center of the Performing Arts, San Francisco (2003) * ''Flamenco,'' Foyles Gallery, London (2003) * ''Tauromaquia'', Museum of Carruajes, Seville, Spain (2002) * ''Below Zero'', Focus Gallery, San Francisco (2000) * ''Black and White Photographs from Andalucia and Shinxiang'', Focus Gallery, San Francisco (1998)

References

External links

*

* ttp://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/lena-herzog-conversation-lawrence-weschler-0 NYPL conversation with Lawrence Weschler
"Lost Souls" Audio Slideshow (NPR)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herzog, Lena 1970 births Living people American photographers American women photographers Date of birth missing (living people) Fine art photographers Harper's Magazine people Photographers from California Soviet emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women