SHTEYNSHLEYGER, ANNA

Untitled (Tires), from the Siberia series, 2002
C-print
9 1/2 x 12 3/8 on 11 x 14 inch paper
Signed Edition of 50

(Russian, b. 1977, U.S. resident)

Anna Shteynshleyger offers a peculiar landscape photography, one concerned with place, but only insofar as it relates to human history. Shteynshleyger’s photographs of Siberia examine the sites of Russian labor camps under the former Communist regime. By juxtaposing Siberia’s visually stunning landscape with its history of containment and oppression, her photographs seek to excavate politically charged historical events, now concealed by the seductive beauty of the landscapes which witnessed them. Issues of place and history are further complicated by the way Shteynshleyger’s landscapes reference those of nineteenth century Russian painter Isaak Levitan and sixteenth century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Anna Shteynshleyger was born in Moscow, Russia in 1977. She came to the United States in 1992. Shteynshleyger received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (1999) and an MFA from Yale University (2001). In 2004 a solo exhibition of her Siberia pictures was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Shteynshleyger teaches photography at Columbia College Chicago and McHenry County College.