Nancy Lee Katz managed to create a body of work without calling herself an artist, and without discussion—simply by focusing on doing. Sometimes, between saying and doing, you have to choose. Nancy chose to do. No images? Click here <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-e-skudity-mcujltt-jt/> BIENNALE DI SENIGALLIA
Nancy Lee Katz (1947–2018) quietly built a unique pantheon of portraits. In it, she brought together artists, musicians, photographers, writers, and intellectuals whom she admired for their moral values and creative integrity. Some of her images, such as those of Richard Serra or Louise Bourgeois, are now considered iconic.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-r/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-y/> A reserved and original figure, Nancy Lee Katz never called herself an artist, nor did she seek to belong to any school or movement. Raised in New York in a family of filmmakers—her father, Sid Katz, an Emmy-winning editor, her mother, Babette, elegant and athletic—she grew up immersed in images. After university in West Virginia, she set off alone for Europe and Morocco, living for a year and a day with just a thousand dollars in her pocket. Upon returning to the United States, she worked as an editing assistant, then as a set photographer, before quietly devoting herself to portraiture. The project began without contacts or support: she wrote directly to her future sitters with simple, straightforward letters. “Dear Mr. Rauschenberg, I am a portrait photographer and would like to photograph people whose work I admire. Perhaps one day there will be a book. If you grant me an hour of your time, I promise you a good portrait.” Almost all of them accepted. Probably because they sensed that these images would not end up in a glossy magazine, and that Nancy never asked anyone for help in approaching her subjects.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-j/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-t/> Michael Sachs guiding the visit in Rocca Roveresca, before his conference, June 21st, 2025.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-i/> Nancy Lee Katz was deeply independent, without guile, respectful, yet impervious to social conventions. She kept her projects to herself: she would not reveal to anyone the identity of the person she was about to photograph—not even to her partner, who only found out after developing the negatives, in order to update an old Excel file. She never “dropped names,” even though she knew the entire New York art world. Each portrait was a tête-à-tête: the relationship between Nancy, the subject, and the image was sacred—an act of mutual trust. Her work, the fruit of twenty-five years of dedication, remained secret for a long time: she never exhibited or published these portraits, and only three weeks before her death did she reveal them to her partner, so they would not be lost. She selected the best shots from nearly two hundred sessions, classifying them as “good,” “maybe,” or “to discard.” After her passing, that body of work became what we can now call her “Pantheon”: 133 portraits of 128 personalities, almost all chosen by her. To these is added the moving, though “rejected,” portrait of Ilse Bing, the great photographer at age 95 :
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-d/> As Malcolm Daniel <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-h/>, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, wrote, “Inspiring a degree of collaboration with her sitters, Katz seems to have grasped her subjects’ habits, ideas, and character—to have found “the intimate resemblance” in Nadar’s words. <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-k/>” Today, her Pantheon emerges from the shadows, revealing the quiet strength of a photographer who, without fanfare, knew how to capture the truth. Nancy never sold her prints and that they are not for sale now.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-u/> Nancy Lee Katz passport photo, age 31
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-o/> The conference took place in the remarkable Senigallia fortress, the Rocca Roveresca <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-b/>, alongside an exhibition of six musician portraits. We were celebrating both music and photography. Celeste translated Michael’s words into Italian.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-n/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-f/> The main exhibition, featuring 23 portraits, was held at the nearby Palazzetto Baviera. The Erasmus students spent a long time discussing how to arrange the portraits, before ultimately accepting the brief and decisive advice of passing artists.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-z/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-v/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-e/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-s/> Michael took the opportunity to organize the filming of short sequences in Senigallia, destined for a movie produced in the US. For several days, Alberto—the cameraman from Senigallia’s local TV channel—and Jean-Hugues, an independent French artist, followed his directions. The three of them managed to collaborate, even though they shared only a handful of words in common.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-g/> Back at Rocca, on Saturday late afternoon, after the conference, musicians began to play jazz, and the youngest attendees—who had been so respectful of art and culture—were now eagerly awaiting the chance to wear their masks for the traditional Biennale masked ball. Held in honor of the Festa della Musica and the summer solstice, it was a joyful celebration of art, nature, and creativity.
MASKED BALL <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-w/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yd/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yh/>
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yk/> The exhibition at the Rocca will be on view for most of July. To read Malcolm Daniel’s essay on Nancy Lee Katz’s Pantheon, visit: www.mfah.org/collection/nancy-lee-katz <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yu/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jl/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jr/> Let’s conclude with a special card dedicated to the founding myth of portrait photography : MYT-2 – Zeuxis and Parrhasios. Greece, 5th century BC (as told by Pliny, under the consulship of Titus Flavius Vespasian and Titus Flavius Sabinus, year 77 AD) Two Greek painters, both famous for their realism, compete in a trompe-l’œil contest. Zeuxis paints grapes with such perfection that birds come to peck at them. Parrhasios, subtler, paints a simple curtain. Zeuxis tries to move it… but the veil is itself an illusion. Pliny the Elder recounts this story in his Natural History. It is the earliest tale of art deceiving the eye, coming close to tangible reality. Heliochromy published as a postcard, mixed media on a digital base: collage, engraving, gouache retouching, and manual interventions. It is part of the first series, The Mysteries of Photography, dedicated to myths and precursors.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jy/> MYT-2 – Zeuxis e Parrhasios. Grecia, V secolo a.C. (racconto di Plinio, sotto il consolato di Tito Flavio Vespasiano e Tito Flavio Sabino (anno 77 d.C.) Due pittori greci, entrambi celebri per il loro realismo, si sfidano in un concorso di trompe-l’œil. Zeuxis dipinge dell’uva con tale perfezione che gli uccelli vengono a beccarla. Parrhasios, più sottile, dipinge un semplice tendaggio. Zeuxis tenta di spostarlo… ma il velo è anch’esso un’illusione. Lo racconta Plinio il Vecchio nella Naturalis Historia. È il primo racconto dell’arte che inganna l’occhio, che si avvicina alla realtà sensibile. Eliocromia pubblicata come cartolina, procedimento misto su base digitale: collage, incisione, ritocco a gouache e interventi manuali, e fa parte della prima serie I Misteri della Fotografia, dedicata ai miti ed ai precursori Edizioni Atelier 41, via Fratelli Bandiera, Senigallia
Nancy Lee Katz (1947–2018) quietly built a unique pantheon of portraits. In it, she brought together artists, musicians, photographers, writers, and intellectuals whom she admired for their moral values and creative integrity. Some of her images, such as those of Richard Serra or Louise Bourgeois, are now considered iconic.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-r/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-y/> A reserved and original figure, Nancy Lee Katz never called herself an artist, nor did she seek to belong to any school or movement. Raised in New York in a family of filmmakers—her father, Sid Katz, an Emmy-winning editor, her mother, Babette, elegant and athletic—she grew up immersed in images. After university in West Virginia, she set off alone for Europe and Morocco, living for a year and a day with just a thousand dollars in her pocket. Upon returning to the United States, she worked as an editing assistant, then as a set photographer, before quietly devoting herself to portraiture. The project began without contacts or support: she wrote directly to her future sitters with simple, straightforward letters. “Dear Mr. Rauschenberg, I am a portrait photographer and would like to photograph people whose work I admire. Perhaps one day there will be a book. If you grant me an hour of your time, I promise you a good portrait.” Almost all of them accepted. Probably because they sensed that these images would not end up in a glossy magazine, and that Nancy never asked anyone for help in approaching her subjects.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-j/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-t/> Michael Sachs guiding the visit in Rocca Roveresca, before his conference, June 21st, 2025.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-i/> Nancy Lee Katz was deeply independent, without guile, respectful, yet impervious to social conventions. She kept her projects to herself: she would not reveal to anyone the identity of the person she was about to photograph—not even to her partner, who only found out after developing the negatives, in order to update an old Excel file. She never “dropped names,” even though she knew the entire New York art world. Each portrait was a tête-à-tête: the relationship between Nancy, the subject, and the image was sacred—an act of mutual trust. Her work, the fruit of twenty-five years of dedication, remained secret for a long time: she never exhibited or published these portraits, and only three weeks before her death did she reveal them to her partner, so they would not be lost. She selected the best shots from nearly two hundred sessions, classifying them as “good,” “maybe,” or “to discard.” After her passing, that body of work became what we can now call her “Pantheon”: 133 portraits of 128 personalities, almost all chosen by her. To these is added the moving, though “rejected,” portrait of Ilse Bing, the great photographer at age 95 :
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-d/> As Malcolm Daniel <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-h/>, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, wrote, “Inspiring a degree of collaboration with her sitters, Katz seems to have grasped her subjects’ habits, ideas, and character—to have found “the intimate resemblance” in Nadar’s words. <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-k/>” Today, her Pantheon emerges from the shadows, revealing the quiet strength of a photographer who, without fanfare, knew how to capture the truth. Nancy never sold her prints and that they are not for sale now.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-u/> Nancy Lee Katz passport photo, age 31
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-o/> The conference took place in the remarkable Senigallia fortress, the Rocca Roveresca <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-b/>, alongside an exhibition of six musician portraits. We were celebrating both music and photography. Celeste translated Michael’s words into Italian.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-n/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-f/> The main exhibition, featuring 23 portraits, was held at the nearby Palazzetto Baviera. The Erasmus students spent a long time discussing how to arrange the portraits, before ultimately accepting the brief and decisive advice of passing artists.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-z/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-v/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-e/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-s/> Michael took the opportunity to organize the filming of short sequences in Senigallia, destined for a movie produced in the US. For several days, Alberto—the cameraman from Senigallia’s local TV channel—and Jean-Hugues, an independent French artist, followed his directions. The three of them managed to collaborate, even though they shared only a handful of words in common.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-g/> Back at Rocca, on Saturday late afternoon, after the conference, musicians began to play jazz, and the youngest attendees—who had been so respectful of art and culture—were now eagerly awaiting the chance to wear their masks for the traditional Biennale masked ball. Held in honor of the Festa della Musica and the summer solstice, it was a joyful celebration of art, nature, and creativity.
MASKED BALL <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-w/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yd/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yh/>
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yk/> The exhibition at the Rocca will be on view for most of July. To read Malcolm Daniel’s essay on Nancy Lee Katz’s Pantheon, visit: www.mfah.org/collection/nancy-lee-katz <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-yu/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jl/> <transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jr/> Let’s conclude with a special card dedicated to the founding myth of portrait photography : MYT-2 – Zeuxis and Parrhasios. Greece, 5th century BC (as told by Pliny, under the consulship of Titus Flavius Vespasian and Titus Flavius Sabinus, year 77 AD) Two Greek painters, both famous for their realism, compete in a trompe-l’œil contest. Zeuxis paints grapes with such perfection that birds come to peck at them. Parrhasios, subtler, paints a simple curtain. Zeuxis tries to move it… but the veil is itself an illusion. Pliny the Elder recounts this story in his Natural History. It is the earliest tale of art deceiving the eye, coming close to tangible reality. Heliochromy published as a postcard, mixed media on a digital base: collage, engraving, gouache retouching, and manual interventions. It is part of the first series, The Mysteries of Photography, dedicated to myths and precursors.
<transmission.plantureux.it/t/d-l-skudity-mcujltt-jy/> MYT-2 – Zeuxis e Parrhasios. Grecia, V secolo a.C. (racconto di Plinio, sotto il consolato di Tito Flavio Vespasiano e Tito Flavio Sabino (anno 77 d.C.) Due pittori greci, entrambi celebri per il loro realismo, si sfidano in un concorso di trompe-l’œil. Zeuxis dipinge dell’uva con tale perfezione che gli uccelli vengono a beccarla. Parrhasios, più sottile, dipinge un semplice tendaggio. Zeuxis tenta di spostarlo… ma il velo è anch’esso un’illusione. Lo racconta Plinio il Vecchio nella Naturalis Historia. È il primo racconto dell’arte che inganna l’occhio, che si avvicina alla realtà sensibile. Eliocromia pubblicata come cartolina, procedimento misto su base digitale: collage, incisione, ritocco a gouache e interventi manuali, e fa parte della prima serie I Misteri della Fotografia, dedicata ai miti ed ai precursori Edizioni Atelier 41, via Fratelli Bandiera, Senigallia
La Fotografia è la più bella delle collezioni … Senigallia, città della fotografia, ospitera nuovi spazi dedicato alla ricerca e promozione della fotografia. Atelier 41 si trova 41 via fratelli Bandiera. Senigallia diventerà la Città delle collezioni. Any question : fotografia@atelier41.org <mailto:fotografia@atelier41.org>
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