'Lena C. Emery's photographs are characterised by their elegance, sensuality and intimation of narrative. They are not realist, because her subjects can be seen to be performing - with subtlety or pronouncement - and yet they are not constructed. Instead they acknowledge that taking photographs, and being photographed, are true acts - taking a photograph alters reality. In Emery's work, the effect of the photograph is to engender a moment of intimacy in which the self shifts from private to public.. Rie is Emery's first monograph and is named after the woman pictured on the book's cover. It means both 'truth' and 'picture'. Rie is the outcome of a focussed project undertaken in Tokyo.' (Lucy Kumara Moore)
Rie includes a short story by Emery - speaking of this to AnOther magazine, she said:
'By purposely taking the conversation out of a contemporary context and writing in the voice of a naive young girl - ruminating on the joys of days spent uninhibitedly whilst living in rural Japan during a bygone era - I was hoping to re-instill a sense of innocence in the way that we view our bodies; and also encourage a connectedness with the natural world around us'.
Edition of 750, published by Kominek, foil-debossed, linen-bound hardcover, 78 pages, 37 colour plates