Beholding the Arctic’s Wonders—And Its Melting Future for Atmos Magazine
Emery journeyed to the Arctic, crossing the famous 80th parallel north, to document the Arctic increasingly delicate ecosystem.
Gucci’s newest art anthology, ‘Prospettive Ancora Londra (2025)’,features artwork and photography by Tracey Emin, Martin Parr, Francis Bacon, Wolfgang Tillmans and Lena C. Emery
Prospettive Ancora Londra is a love letter to London offering a fresh perspective on the city’s cultural evolution and featuring artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Bob and Roberta Smith,Remi Ajani, Sonia Boyce, Sunil Gupta and Lena C. Emery. Creative direction by @sabatods, curated by @charleneprempeh and @lewisdaltongilbert of @vibecalledtech,
Emery creates a series of narrative moments for RETORI – Chapter 1: Roots, within the renowned Scarpa Wing of Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova.
Emery’s installation at FRIEZE No9 Cork Street Gallery, carves out an intersection between environmental stewardship and artistic expression
Lost Bodies features honed glacial boulders, referencing glacial erratics—boulders that glaciers transport across landscapes before depositing them in unexpected places as they recede. These stones, often vastly different in composition from the local geology, serve as metaphors for displacement and resilience in the face of natural forces. The term “erratic” comes from the Latin “errare,” meaning “to wander,” which speaks to the journey of these rocks across distances.
Emery draws parallels between the physical displacement of these stones and the upheaval experienced by human communities impacted by climate change. This connection between natural and human migration underpins the work, pays tribute not only to Earth’s glacial past but also to the narratives of resilience and survival in the face of loss.
In Future Relics, Emery fuses salvaged granite remnants with a special type of lime, which naturally absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as it hardens. The sediment covered rocks mimic moraines—the accumulations of rock and soil carried and deposited by moving glaciers while underscoring the potential of traditional materials for sustainable solutions to today’s environmental challenges.
‘Where I go to find myself’ – Limited Edition Series
Emery’s latest body of work Where I Go to Find Myself paints tranquil scenes that linger in a suspensions of time. View: Where I Go to Find Myself
‘LENA C. EMERY: The Mountains Between Us’ opens at FRIEZE 25th of April
The exhibtion is held in support of ClientEarth and sponsored by Tekla.
Weaving together photography, video and sculptural objects, Lena C. Emery highlights the accelerated loss of mountain glaciers and the desperate conservation efforts currently employed to impede their decline. Under the continued influence of greenhouse-gas forced global warming, ice that took centuries to develop is vanishing in just a number of years. A fate experts predict for at least two-thirds of all glaciers by the end of this century.
The Mountains Between Us surveys nature’s vulnerability and human intervention as poignant metaphor, not only of preservation but of a broader dialogue on humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
As one of the world’s most ambitious environmental organisations, ClientEarth is actively tackling the climate and environmental crisis by holding the world’s biggest polluters to account for their impact on our planet. Through legal interventions, strategic communications, and advocacy, ClientEarth works in partnership across borders, systems, and sectors to find positive and practical solutions to address climate change, protect biodiversity, stop pollution, and fight for environmental justice.
To hear more about ClientEarth’s urgent campaign actions, events, and other ways you can support their work, visit clientearth.org
FRIEZE No. 9 Cork Street, London W1S 3LL
Admission is free and open to the public.
Emery’s work is featured in a new book ‘Pictures for Elmhurst’ designed by Seth Zucker of Li Inc.
All proceeds go directly to the Elmhurst Hospital Auxiliary, the fundraising arm of Elmhurst Hospital Center.
Emery’s new series of nature PAINTINGS featured on the cover THE PLANT
Emery’s work featured in a new book ‘The Overview’ by Willow Defebaugh
The Overview is an anthology of meditative essays from Atmos Editor-in-Chief Willow Defebaugh alongside immersive photography of ecosystems around the world, it’s a pathway for reconnecting with nature through reverence, balance, evolution, and healing.
To highlight the need for well-regulated marine protected areas, Emery has created a portfolio of over 100 underwater images
Emery has created a growing portfolio of over 100 marine photographs in an effort to underscore the critical need for marine protected areas. Her images hover between representation and pure form, creating a sense of the uncanny where organic structures appear both familiar and alien, elevating the fragile, liminal spaces of marine ecosystems. By removing the impulse to identify and categorize, Emery fosters a sense of awe and urgency—a quiet but powerful plea for conservation.
In the mid 90s Emery’s father co-established Wakatobi, a Dive Resort and Collaborative Reef Conservation Program within the Tukang Besi Archipelago, which at the time turned 6km of privately sponsored reef sanctuaries into an effective no-fishing zone. By 2002 the success of ongoing efforts set a precedent for human rights based conservation, leading the Indonesian government to expand the area to over 1.39 million hectares and creating what is known today as Wakatobi National Park. In 2012 it was added to the list of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, recognising it as one of the most biodiverse marine habitats with the highest number of reef and fish species in the world.
Emery shines a light on our underwater world inside Atmos Vol 9
In 2023 in an effort to emphasise the need for well-regulated marine protected areas, Emery created a portfolio of 100+ underwater photographs documenting the Wakatobi National Park. Wakatobi is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in Southeast Sulawesi, and stands as a testament to more than two decades of collective conservation efforts resulting in having the highest number of reef and fish species in the world. All images were photographed within the bounds of the Wakatobi National Park.
Well-enforced marine protected areas can provide significant ecological benefits, increase resilience to natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and allow for ecosystem recovery. Our oceans are the largest ecosystem on Earth, they feed us, regulate our climate, and generate most of the oxygen we breathe. We must support their protection.
Lena C Emery designs a series of furniture and objects as part of THE OIHARA RESEARCH PROJECT [TORP]
There is an emerging consensus that the health of the planet depends on the coexistence between rapidly growing cities and the natural world, yet few frameworks or tools are being provided to allow those living in cities to incorporate nature within their encapsulated lives. Drawing on the insights of the natural world, TORP examines possible solutions through the creation of functional objects and experiences based in nature.
New print editions added
For more information on available prints, sizes and prices please contact mail@surolab.com. Bespoke framing available, shipping worldwide.
Excerpt of Emery’s series ‘I Undressed to Climb a Tree’ published inside Whitelies Magazine
In ‘I Undressed to Climb a Tree’, Emery juxtaposes the natural rhythms of life with the routinisation of urban environments. Her portrayal of listless young women evokes a sense of transition, reminiscent of the way Sofia Coppola captures moments of existential uncertainty in her movie “Lost in Translation”, which feature complex portraits of personages struggling for clarity and resolution. – Stefan Dotter, Editor in Chief Whitelies Magazine
An interview and excerpt from Emery’s photographic series ‘Tenchi’ featured within IFLA
The new Special Edition of IT’S FREEZING IN LA! (@itsfreezinginla) addresses how mainstream photographic coverage of the climate crisis is failing to convey the issue in all of its nuance and complexity. Instead, we need new narratives and perspectives that can inspire and facilitate sustainable activism. We need stories that peel back the dense layers of the problem, highlight some of the solutions, and, crucially, envision more positive future. Text by Daniel Milroy Maher.
Emery documents nature in all its splendour for climate and culture magazine Atmos, including images taken in Oman, UK, Israel, USA, Switzerland and Japan
Lena C. Emery takes part in Group Show ‘IDENTITY’ presented by Whitelies Magazine
Fraught with social, cultural and political connotations, identity is the medium through which we express and adopt signifiers. It’s that funny thing that acts as a connective tissue, joining us as particular individuals to the general or universal. It’s the question “Where are you from?” met with pause, and more pause. There are those who answer with conviction, while there are others who answer differently each time, but all of us speak of identity with our mouths full.
New framed Limited Edition
New framed limited edition prints. Available via mail@surolab.com. Shipping worldwide.
Lena C. Emery takes part in Group Exhibition in benefit of the Canopee Association and Now you see me Moria
Showing as part of a of philanthropic, ecologically engaged group exhibition at Sheriff Gallery, curated by Sophie Strobele, ‘MORIA‘ unites a striking body of artworks, visually manifesting the significance and sacredness of trees. Challenging anthropocentrism viewpoints, ‘MORIA’ celebrates trees as symbols for symbiosis and collaboration; acknowledging their sensory abilities, communication skills, climatic influence, and spiritual power.
Emery’s work is published in a new exhibition and book considering the role of the female body in fashion: ‘Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion’
Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion edited by Shonagh Marsahll and Holly Hay charts a new movement in contemporary fashion photography, bringing together exhibiting photographers Lena C. Emery, Brianna Capozzi, Tyrone Lebon, Marton Perlaki and Charlie Engman, amongst others.
Christiana Figueres, guest curates the Decade of Change Issue of the BJP including Emery’s project ‘Tenchi’
Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and leader of the COP 21 that led to the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres discusses the role of photography & the arts in understanding the climate crisis: We have to be able to use the power of the arts and photography, not as much to confirm the disaster that science is warning us about, but rather to access a different part of our mind. If we cannot imagine a better future, it’s very difficult to work towards it. Reaching that part of the brain, where we can tap into our ingenuity and our creativity, is the challenge for the arts right now. In Decade of Change issue of the British Journal of Photography, we explore Lena C Emery’s ongoing project, Tenchi: Building A Bridge Between Heaven & Earth, where the German photographer builds a narrative around the idea of sustainable, future cities in which the natural landscape and more considered architecture flow into one another. BJP article
One of the winners of the global environmental initiative conceived to harness the universal power of the arts to galvanise climate action, Emery is to exhibit at the Hong Kong Museum of Climate Change as well as the Nest Summit NY
Emery’s work ‘The Future of Fungi: Fungi Our Future’ highlights the little known importance of fungi as we move into a more sustainable future.
LCE: Although fossilised mycelium have been traced back further than any other life-form, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million remain unknown. Mycology deserves our attention and support as its findings continue to be inextricably linked to the solutions for many of our ongoing challenges. The vast, highly intricate and collaborative subterranean networks of mycorrhizal fungi feed and protect plants from disease and aid the rapid absorption of carbon from the atmosphere. Already 15% of all vaccines and biologically produced drugs, including many antibiotics like penicillin, come from fungi, which also harness compounds that can aid in the treatment of cancer, diabetes and potentially even HIV and the Zika virus. A recently found type of mycelia, growing in the soil of a landfill in Pakistan, has been found to break down polyurethane plastic in a matter of weeks, while others are able to degrade harmful heavy metals, absorb pollution from oil spills, consume persistent pesticides and even rehabilitate radioactive sites. Neither plant nor animal, fungi act as biocontrol of plant disease, bio fertilizer, a solution for food insecurity, agricultural waste disposal, biofuel, soil regeneration or plant-based commodities such as vegan leathers, they are one of the most promising agents in relieving the pressures we put on the natural world. As industrial farming continues to erode our forests and soil while fueling climate change as a whole, fungi are disappearing and with them their potential to save us. In our quest for a sustainable and reciprocal relationship between man and nature, mycology offers us a view of our past and the possibility of a more symbiotic future, where human and non-human animals, plants and fungi co-exist in thriving ecosystems.
A renewed and poetic re-imagination on the symbiotic exchange between humanity and nature underscores the world of London-based artist, Lena C. Emery. ‘Nocturnal Tides’ for TEKLA, is a visual study which ruminates on the nature of conscious and unconscious reality: on mind, body and matter, substance and attribute, potentiality and actuality.
What was the intention behind the Nocturnal Tides’ black & white diptychs?
EMERY: I keep asking myself, how can the ideas and images we produce form part of a larger conversation? Our biological clocks are connected to the natural earth rhythms and cycles – like the tide that draws in while the moon rises. So to create pairings that assume a relationship between human and nature as a living, elemental entity seemed like a felicitous way to represent the idea of sleep. As a format, the juxtaposition of the imagery encourages the viewer to create their own symbolic ties, while the intentional use of black and white allows for the necessary abstraction from reality: disrupting the existing visual brand language in order to forge a new, distinctive dialogue.
Is there a symbolic value you place on clouds and water?
EMERY: The interconnection between water and clouds are a beautiful metaphor for the nature flow of existence. Their interdependent relationship reflects the notion of “inter-being” – an understanding that everything in the world co-exists and connects. The tide that ebbs and flows, rises to form clouds. Giant interstellar, molecular clouds that exist out in our cosmos, collapse to birth stars and planets. All the atoms inside of us are constantly moving and renewing. The symbolic value isn’t rooted in the idea of reincarnation but in biological theory. On a microscopic level, the molecules that make up our bodies have once been a part of clouds, mountains and oceans. I like to keep these connections and the concept of ‘interbeing’ in mind when I approach my work as they encapsulate the vast and boundless symbiosis which is present within all of nature and humanity.
New Print Editions available
Limited edition prints, bespoke framing and worldwide shipping available via mail@surolab.com. Above ‘Girl in Hotel Room’ (80x50cm – available framed) taken from Emery’s 2017 series ‘I Undressed to Climb a Tree’.
Emery writes about the Future of Cities and shares previously unpublished imagery inside Whitelies Magazine
Excerpt: As a teenager I came across the works of naturalist, artist and author Joy Adamson, who wrote: ‘Since we humans have the better brain, isn’t it our responsibility to protect our fellow creatures from, oddly enough, ourselves? Wildlife is something which man cannot construct. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Man can rebuild a pyramid, but he can’t rebuild ecology, or a giraffe.’ At age 18 inspired by Adamson’s commitment to wildlife conservation I moved to a small island in Southeast Sulawesi, where my father and friends had set up a dive resort and marine reserve. At the time we were without internet or phone reception and only boat that came every two weeks to pick up and drop off divers and supplies. Today, after two decades of collaborative conservation in partnership with the indigenous population, Wakatobi is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve with the highest number of reef and fish species in the world.
When I think of Adamson’s words today, I think at once of our role as protectors as well as architects of the world we inhabit. Woven into the very fabric of our urban spaces are the norms of the societies, past and present, that built them. Our modern cities, erected largely by a collective body wanting to exert its dominance over the existing environment, have disjointed us from nature. Through living in cities where we separate the constructed, from the native environment, we’ve come to accept to see nature as something isolated from us.
Within my work I explore how we have come to shape our realities and what we can do for a renewed vision to take hold. At the mercy of our physical, biological, social and cultural environments and the way we relate to them, there is a huge opportunity for our places of habitation to be specifically designed to elicit learning. Our cities yield the possibility of teaching us about ecology and our role within the larger nature-system: To sense, perceive and interpret information about the total character of our unique and changing world.
Beyond re-adapting the way we design our built environments to be sustainable, we need to formulate a vision of a place where human concentration can exist within a framework that remains flexible, engaged and connected to the natural systems that allow it to thrive. Cities must answer to our questions of accountability and ethics in order to reflect a deeper sense of humanism. Rather than thinking of cities as machines that echo man’s technological prowess, we should think of them as organisms within a larger ecosystem that acknowledge the rights of the natural landscape into which we insert them. By reconciling what our future cities can afford us beyond just being places of convenience, we can hope to change the way we perceive and reason, and learn to inhale a bigger picture of the world and ourselves within it. We can create homes that can counter our pervasive disconnectedness and apathy, and enable kinder generations to exist and prosper.
Lena C Emery x TU ES MON TRESOR Exhibition at Biotop Tokyo
Photographer and environmental activist Lena C. Emery exhibits her visual collaboration with Tu Es Mon Tresor at Biotop Tokyo. The exhibition, is comprised of a series of photographic prints as well as books by Emery, including Emery’s book “Yuka & The Forest” which captures the spiritual side of Japanese forests.
Biotop is a concept store and gallery encompassing fashion and lifestyle, a plant nursery and a restaurant with locations in Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka.
A series of images by Lena C. Emery featured in Vanity Fair France.
Anti-Racism Photography Fundraiser
100 photographers including Lena C. Emery have donated prints to be sold in support of Black communities. Visit antiracismphotofundraiser.com to purchase a print. @antiracismphotofundraiser
Pictures for Elmhurst
187 artists have come together to raise funds for Elmhurst Hospital Center’s COVID-19 response. Buy Prints, Save Lives. Ends April 20. www.picturesforelmhurst.com @picturesforelmhurst #picturesforelmhurst
Our Earth is burning – PLEASE DONATE
In an effort to support wildlife organisations in Australia while fires continue to rage across the continent we are donating all proceeds from purchases of Rie by Lena C. Emery to wires.org.au.
Please visit surolab.com between 10th – 20th of January to order a signed copy.