Anna Shteynshleyger

(Russian-American, b. 1977)

Untitled (Tires), from the Siberia series, 2002

Untitled (Perm Clouds), from the Siberia series, 2002

Anna Shteynshleyger’s photographs of Siberia examine the sites of Russian labor camps under the former Communist regime. Specifically, the images in her Siberia series are the culmination of three different trips to different regions of Russia: Kolyma, Perm, and Moscow and its surroundings. The juxtaposition of these visually stunning landscapes with their history of containment and oppression draws an interesting paradox about the character of modern Russia. Issues of place and history are further complicated by the way Shteynshleyger’s landscapes reference those of nineteenth century Russian painter Isaak Levitan. She also counts among her influences the work of sixteenth century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Hunters on the Snow in particular) and twentieth century Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (especially Morror and Stalker).

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 is a professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago and McHenry County College.

— Kendra Greene

Artner, Alan. “Shteynshleyger’s cutting-edge work elusive”. Chicago Tribune. Section 7, p 23. March 19, 2004.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: an experiment in literary investigation. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1975.

http://mocp.org/collections/mpp/shteynshleyger_anna.php