Photographer Lena Herzog spent seven years following and photographing Theo Jansen’s strandbeests, or “beach animals” in Dutch. Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen offers a portrait of Jansen’s enormous, self-propelling, kinetic creations. Jansen has been working for nearly two decades to create a new life form that moves, and can even survive, on its own.

Herzog’s photography focuses on both the artistic and scientific aspects of Jansen’s creations. The photographs show Jansen’s often-solitary process, and many of the photos illuminate the beests’ mechanics: PVC tubing and other hardware-store materials Jansen uses to build his complex, lifelike sculptures.  Like the strandbeests themselves, Herzog’s photos mesmerize viewers with a hypnotic, almost surreal sense of landscape, process, and imagination.

Herzog’s book also features a fascinating essay by Lawrence Weschler, a former staff writer for The New Yorker and current writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. 

Hardcover, 330 pages