Emery travels to Dominica to document Ocean Giants for Atmos Vol. 11
In November 2023, Dominica announced the creation of a 788-square-kilometer Sperm Whale Reserve along its western coast. This reserve aims to protect its resident sperm whale population, bolster biodiversity, and contribute to climate resilience by sequestering carbon. The initiative also seeks to boost the local economy through sustainable tourism and marine research opportunities.
‘Migration North’ New Limited Edition Prints
For pricing please contact mail@surolab.com. Shipping worldwide.
Portfolio and in-depth interview inside noisé 05 – Jeux d’eau
noisethemagazine brings together voices and visions that explore transformation, across time, memory, and form.
Editor-in-Chief tangsiyu interviews Emery: “Lena’s work is shaped by movements – across landscapes, mediums, and the unseen currents of memory and time. Raised between continents and islands, she learned to navigate the fluidity of identity, the tension between rootedness and detachment. This duality is embedded in her practice photography, writing, and installation become ways of tracing what is disappearing, what remains, and what lingers in between. Her images are quiet, yet they hold weight. A glacier wrapped in fabric, a nude body stripped of its prescribed meaning the delicate balance of nature confronting its own unraveling. Her work does not demand but invites, not to impose a singular narrative, but to open a door. Whether examining the fragile bond between humans and nature or challenging how we have been conditioned to see, Lena’s art is a process of revealing – peeling back layers, dissolving boundaries, and asking if we are truly paying attention.”
Emery journeyed to the Arctic to document the Arctic’s increasingly delicate ecosystem for Atmos Magazine
My practice is driven by the recognition that our futures are intertwined with these vanishing landscapes and as we continue to burn fossil fuels, we hasten their disappearance, and with them, we also lose a part of ourselves.
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.
‘LENA C. EMERY: The Mountains Between Us’ opens at FRIEZE 25th of April 2024
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.
Where I Go to Find Myself, 2024
Limited Edition Print Series available via mail@surolab.com
Lena C Emery designs a series of furniture and objects as part of THE OIHARA RESEARCH PROJECT [TORP]
The Oihara Research Project (TORP) is an initiative exploring ways to reintegrate nature and natural materials into daily life through functional objects and plant-based practices.
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, theoihararesearchproject examines possible solutions through the creation of functional objects and experiences based in nature.
Emery’s new series of nature PAINTINGS featured on the 20th anniversary cover of THE PLANT
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.
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.
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.
For more information on available print editions, sizes and prices please contact mail@surolab.com. 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.
Lena C. Emery takes part in Group Show ‘IDENTITY’ presented by Whitelies Magazine
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 photographs in ‘Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion’ an exhibition and book curated by Shonagh Marshall and Holly form part of a new movement in contemporary fashion photography
One of the winners of the global environmental initiative, Emery exhibits at the Hong Kong Museum of Climate Change and Nest Summit New York
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. EMERY: Fungi, among the oldest life forms on Earth, hold immense untapped potential—over 90% of their estimated 3.8 million species remain undiscovered. Mycorrhizal fungi form vast underground networks that sustain plants, protect against disease, and rapidly absorb atmospheric carbon. Fungi already contribute to medicine, producing antibiotics like penicillin and compounds to treat cancer, diabetes, and even plastic pollution. They clean up oil spills, degrade pesticides, and restore radioactive sites. Beyond medicine, fungi act as bio-fertilizers, soil regenerators, and solutions for food insecurity and sustainable materials like vegan leather. Yet, industrial farming and deforestation threaten their habitats and their vital role in ecological balance. Mycology offers a path to a symbiotic future where humans, animals, plants, and fungi coexist in thriving ecosystems. Fungi’s survival—and ours—are deeply interconnected.
Emery collaborates with Tekla in a visual study titled ‘Nocturnal Tides’
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
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 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, 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 by a collective body wanting to exert its dominance over the existing environment, have disjointed us from nature. We’ve come to accept to see nature as something isolated from us.
Within my work I explore 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 engaged and connected to the natural systems that allow it to thrive. Cities must answer to our questions of responsibility 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, we can 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.
Emery’s visual collaboration with Tu Es Mon Tresor on show
A series of images by Lena C. Emery featured in Vanity Fair France.
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.
Yuka & The Forest is available at Offprint Paris, November 7th – 10th 2019 with publisher Art Paper Editions
Kris Kozlowski Moore and Brad Feuerhelm review ‘Yuka & The Forest’
Our lives in the West are evidently powered by a paradigm of speed, but perhaps it is time to slow down. Yuka & The Forest by Lena C. Emery appears to do this. In the artist’s second book, we are introduced to the forests of Japan, more specifically those termed chinju no mori (sacred forests surrounding Shinto shrines). The book opens with a story written in the first person by Emery, poetically narrating a meditative walk that the photographs later illustrate. It is vivid, sensual prose that instills tranquility of mind, where talk of clouds as gentle giants, morning bird trills, tree spirits inhabiting twisting Japanese tree trunks and instances of meaningful touch between human and nature populate the passage. Importantly, Emery opts to at times uses Japanese words, melding her western thoughts with traditional language to underscore Japan’s harmonious relationship with nature whilst accentuating the remaining dichotomies between the East and West. In the West we are conditioned to consume, the forests around us identified, labelled and deconstructed as inanimate resources, a model of thought that conceals the harm it causes ourselves and the wider world. Yet Japan’s collective psyche towards the spiritual, psychological, medical and cultural value of the land has enabled them to preserve monumental areas of earth in its natural state. Because the preface echoes the visual narrative to come, it grounds us in the ideas that the work ultimately revolves around. It’s a precursor to the importance that Emery puts on the world. Read on here. (Kris Kozlowski Moore, heavycollective.com)
It somehow seems pertinent to have left this title too long to review having been caught in the deluge of books landing on my desk in a velocity that no longer seems sustainable. And sustainability is what we should be speaking about as fires rage through the forests of the Amazon. The lungs as it were, observed by the eyes of the collective body prepared to choke on a negative feedback loop for the price of a better burger. It depends on how we spin it I guess, but one cannot feel a profound dislocation these days from the environment and our place within it. “A culture that can instill the need for harmony and interdependence towards our natural environment within its people has the best chance for a sustainable future”. …reads the endpaper of Yuka & The Forest by Lena C. emery (APE) … In considering the metaphorical terms, it would be a shame to lose sight of the grandiosity of the images themselves. Make no mistake, the images of the forest and of Yuka are truly beautiful. Read on here (Brad Feuerhelm, American Suburb X)
Tokyo based Pen Magazine writes about Yoko Ikeda, Toshio Shibata and Lena C. Emery
‘Yuka & The Forest’ on show at the London Art Book Fair at Whitechapel Gallery
BOOK SIGNING ‘Yuka & The Forest’ Saturday, 2nd of March @Yvon Lambert, Paris
Come join us at Yvon Lambert for the signing of ‘Yuka & The Forest’ at 14 rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris.
“A culture that can instil the need for harmony and interdependence towards our natural environment within its people has the best chance for a sustainable future”, reads the last page inside Yuka & The Forest, alluding to the success story that is Japan, where forests cover 67% of its total land area. Yuka & The Forest holds up the mirror to our intolerable, collective in-action in the face of the climate crisis. So pained by this reality, we have found ourselves paralysed, much like the book’s protagonist Yuka, who at the end of her journey contemplates: “Perhaps if only I had called after it (the hare, the guardian of the woods) in time, it could have warned the spirits, it could have pleaded with the kisetsu? Instead I stand silent and motionless; my mind burned by a vision of a forest that once stood so tall and then was gone.”
Printed on 100% recycled paper, 30% of proceeds were donated to the World Wide Fund For Nature, working in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment.
Emery’s Book and Special Edition ‘Rie’ currently on show at Claire de Rouen.
ARLES: Prix du Livre d’Auteur / Author Book Award 1 JULY – 22 SEPTEMBER 2019
Yuka & The Forest is currently on show as part of the 2019 Prix du Livre d’Auteur within the Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards. There are three categories of books: Authors’, Historical and Photo-Text. The Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’Écriture et la Littérature backs and encourages the Photo-Text Book Award, which celebrates the relationship between words and images. Each book is received in two copies: one is deposited at the library of the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles, the other put on public display throughout the festival period.