Where I’ve been

My name is Carlotta Cisternas Herzog. My life began on a small hobby farm in Houston, Texas, where I was born to German parents. I spent my childhood alternating between the U.S. and Germany, horses and bicycles, cowboy boots and lederhosen. 

Words were my first love. In kindergarten I was scolded for reading instead of socializing with my classmates (not much has changed). When I was all of ten years old, my mom created a blog for me. Blogging pushed me to pick up a camera and poof—my second love was born. I photographed my family obsessively and through this careful study blossomed a fascination with the nuances of human nature and the world in which we exist.

What I’m doing

I write and make photographs about growing up, slowing down, and everything in between. When encountering beauty, Alain de Botton says, “there is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’” If you ask me, the word beauty could be interchanged with anything else: tribulation or love; sadness or joy.

Hello, world—I’m here, I’m seeing these things, and they matter to me. Hopefully they matter to you too.