Rachel Herman researches and makes work about intangible states of consciousness – like love, grief, and interconnectedness. While working on her first book, float chandelier float, about perceptual shifts of time and space during mourning, she also helps preserve the legacies of artists who have influenced her own thinking, including Alan Cohen, a Chicago-based photographer who studied at the Institute of Design with Aaron Siskind, and Audrey Leamon, a painter who records mystical otherworldly transmissions.
Rachel studied visual art and visual theory at the University of Chicago and literature at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has taught photography and visual culture at DePaul University, Northwestern University, Columbia College, and Illinois State University. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships from Anderson Ranch, Light Work, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, among others. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO, her hometown and where she is also currently living.
She is a certified Reiki Master and Reiki Phowa practitioner.