Elizabeth Heyert’s THE UNBORN – what we are all like before we enter the world |
Elizabet Heyert’s striking new series Premieres at the Venice Bienalle, continuing the artist’s decades’ long exploration of the human experience. The Unborn consists of nine photographs of pre-natal subjects who were conceived in the first half of the 20th century, and died of natural causes. With faces fully formed and eyes shut, they evoke thoughts of the pre birth beginning that is common to all humans wherever they may be. Immersive and somewhat mesmerising, the pre natal portraits engage, enthral and raise ponderings of our very essence as humans.
“Everyone will experience The Unborn portraits through the lens of their own emotions” said Heyert, “there is no right or wrong way to respond, although we can never really know anything about the nine figures in my series, we can each write their stories, if only in our imagination.”
The highly noted photographer has been exploring the human experience for many years. In 2006 she aired the stunning The Travelers, her iconic series of post-mortem photographs – immaculately executed portraits evoking musings on fate, relationships, lives squandered and just what it means to be human. Where the stunning The Travellers focused on post mortem portraits, the Unborn features portraits of lives unlived – both bringing to the fore an aspect of the human experience in an original and moving way. Here lies Heyert’s artistic greatness – it is the brilliantly tuned tapping into a universal human experience that resonates with viewers — we empathise with the subject because on some level, we recognise their struggles, journey and very essence.
Here the New York based photographer and author, talks about the inspiration for The Unborn, the challenging shoot “through the heavy glass of a vitrine and then through whatever liquid the figures were suspended in”, the ageless beauty of Platinum prints and the unwavering fascination with what makes us human.
HG Who are these unborn individuals?
EH The nine photographs in my series, The Unborn, are portraits of pre-natal subjects who were conceived in the first half of the 20th century and died of natural causes. That’s basically all the facts that I, or anyone, knows about them.
HG What is the story behind the........