Carrie Schneider's 'First Living Woman' at Venice Biennale Is Largest Analog Photograph

Carrie Schneider created the world's largest analog chromogenic photograph, 'First Living Woman' (2026), for the 61st Venice Biennale exhibition 'In Minor Keys' curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The work rephotographs a close-up of actress Hélène Châtelain from Chris Marker's 1962 film 'La Jetée' using a room-sized camera in her Hudson Valley studio. Schneider played a clip from the film on her iPhone, made paper negatives, and exposed them frame-by-frame onto Fujifilm's jumbo roll of chromogenic paper. The roll was processed in Vienna because no US lab could handle it. At the Arsenale, the installation consists of three curving rows of serpentine ruffle totaling a kilometer in length, held with magnets. Châtelain's face appears serially, sometimes obscured by paint, holes, tape, or cut into confetti-like pieces. A companion Super 16mm film loops simultaneously at David Peter Francis Gallery in New York. Schneider's earlier works engaged faces of Romy Schneider and Mariah Carey using similar in-camera processes. The Biennale runs through November 22, 2026.