[The Shortcast] Heidi Lender on self-portrait, tending to her flame and the gift of Campo Garzon

Born in New Haven, CT, Heidi Lender began her career reporting on the fashion universe for national magazines, writing features and styling photo shoots throughout her twenties. With a BA in apparel and textiles from Cornell University, she covered style and travel from New York to Paris, where she served as Fashion Director and Associate Bureau Chief of Women’s Wear Daily and W Magazine. After Paris she went to India, where she lived part-time while studying yoga for the next eight years. In 2007, she opened and taught at a yoga studio in San Francisco, and two years later she discovered her creative self in photography. Self-taught, she began by creating self-portraits and realised a meaningful way to make sense of the world and her place in it. Her images are often based in self-inquiry that stem from personal experiences, relationships and/or investigate identity.

She is represented by galleries in the U.S. and Uruguay and has exhibited internationally. Heidi is a founding member of the online collective Six Shooters, has twice been a Critical Mass finalist, received recognition from the likes of the Pollux Awards and the Julia Margaret Cameron Award. Her work has been featured in PDN and Rangefinder magazines and in online photo blogs including CNN, NPR and the New Yorker’s Photo Booth. Editorial credits include WSJ Magazine, Disegno Journal and Grey Magazine. In 2014, Kehrer Verlag published the photography book “Grassland” under Lender’s pseudonym, H. Lee. She currently resides on an 80-acre ranch in Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay, where she has founded CAMPO, a nonprofit creative institute supporting international artists (www.campogarzon.org).

In this episode and her discussion with Anne, Heidi recounts her impulsive decision to leave her burgeoning career as a fashion director in Paris at the young age of 26. 

A pivotal moment in Heidi's personal story, she tells Anne, is her discovery of Garzón, Uruguay. During an impromptu trip to South America, she stumbled upon her dream home in the quaint village, which became the birthplace of CAMPO. Heidi describes to Anne how her passion for photography flourishes in this picturesque setting, where the art of self-portraiture becomes a therapeutic outlet and a means of self-expression. The episode highlights how photography, combined with mindfulness practices, has been a crucial part of Heidi's healing journey.

Heidi then goes deeper into the founding and growth of CAMPO, which has evolved into a sanctuary for artists, chefs and writers from around the world. Heidi articulates her vision of creating transformative experiences for both residents and attendees, fostering a sense of community through artistic collaboration. The festival, now a three-day event with a month-long residency program, is using the theme "unsettled" this year. The theme explores migration and movement, thus reflecting Heidi's own journey of continuous reinvention.

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