Elizabeth Heyert was born in New York City, New York City, 1951. She is an American author and photographer. Her Master’s Degree in Photography and History of Photography was earned at the Royal College of Art. She studied under Bill Brandt. Her experimental portrait work is well-known, including her trilogy The Sleepers(2003), The Travelers(2005) and The Narcissists (2008). She also created the groundbreaking The Bound (2016).
Heyert has written many books about and about photography, including The Glass-House Years(Allanheld and Schram 1979), Metro Places [Viking Studio Books 1989], The Sleepers, Sei Swann 2003) and The Travelers. He also wrote The Narcissists, Silvana Editoriale (2008), and The Outsider (Damiani 2017).
Table of Contents
- 1 Career
- 1.1 Elizabeth Heyert: The Narcissists
- 1.2 Elizabeth Heyert: The Travelers
- 1.3 Elizabeth Heyert: The Outsider
- 1.4 Victorian Splendor: Re-Creating America's 19th Century Interiors
- 1.5 Elizabeth Heyert: The Sleepers
- 1.6 The Artful Table
- 1.7 The Narcissists (English and Italian Edition)
- 1.8 THE GLASS HOUSE YEARS VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHY 1839-1870
- 1.9 Glasshouse Years: Victorian Portrait Photography, 1830-70
- 1.10 TruSkin Vitamin C Serum for Face, Anti Aging Serum with Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin E, Organic Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil, Hydrating & Brightening Serum for Dark Spots, Fine Lines and Wrinkles, 1 fl oz
Career
After shooting around the world for publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vogue and British Vogue, Elle Decor, and Architectural Digest, and for clients including Ralph Lauren, Cartier, American Express, and Tiffany & Co. her successful career allowed her to close her commercial studio in 1999, to return to a more personal exploration of photography. She began The Sleepers with the idea of experimenting with unconventional forms of portrait photography. She was invited to exhibit her work in a one-person exhibition at New York’s Edwynn Houk Gallery in January 2003.
The Sleepers is a series black-and-white photographs in monumental tones of sleeping people. It’s a meditation about the mysterious world of sleep, and the emotional travels we make through our subconscious state. Reviewing the exhibit The New Yorker wrote that the work: “conjures thoughts of human fragility and impermanence even if the sleepers have become heroic sculptures rising from a deep slumber.” Sei Swann published a monograph of The Sleepers, with an essay inspired by the works, written by the playwright John Guare, in January 2003.
Heyert was obsessed with the unconscious and sleep, which led to her photographing The Travelers a series large-scale color post mortem portraits. The photographs stirred discussion and controversy when they were first exhibited in New York. In a feature about these works by The New York Times they were described as “a peek beneath the surface at a vibrant, living face underneath the mask of Death”. Scalo Verlag published her book, The Travelers, in March 2006. At the end of the year Photo-Eye Magazine named The Travelers one of the best photography books of 2006.
The 30 x 40 inch photographs have been widely exhibited internationally: at the Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland; at the Hayward Gallery in London; in Austria in New Art/New York: Reflections of the Human Condition; and in a solo museum show at the Malmo Museer in Sweden. As part of the exhibition In Memoriam, 18 large-sized prints by The Travelers, were displayed on an island off Naarden in The Netherlands. They can only be accessed through an old stone tunnel. These works were also featured in television shows by ARD Kulturweltspiegel Germany and TVE Spain. They are featured in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, El Mundo, as well as articles in Le Temps, Femina and Nederland.
Heyert’s work has been extensively reviewed and discussed in leading international publications such as The New York Times, the Times of London, Le Monde, and Stern and in contemporary publications such as The Drawbridge and Dazed and Confused. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has her photographs.
Her most recent projects include The Bound (2016), which explores the body as a site for experimentation and transformation, and The Outsider (2017), a conceptual photography project shot in China. She is currently at work on The Idol, a new series that explores religion and popular culture, and the ways society creates myths and false images about women.
Last update 2021-08-06