FLAMENCO

Flamenco (1999) captures the essential anatomy of the improvisational dance, with dramatic gestures and ephemeral movements fixed as sculptures on film. In what began as a technical practice to transform the operation of her mechanical Leica camera into an intuitive, instantaneous reaction to light and motion, Herzog’s work became an expression of a delight in the nature of dance itself. Interested in authentic flamenco and its articulation of female command, initiative, and authority, Herzog photographed both celebratory and mournful dances, which often express the inevitable fate of a wanderer: loss.

Flamenco is one part of Herzog’s trilogy on epiphanies of Spain.