Author/photographer Robyn Lea’s latest book A Room of Her Own has arrived like a lovely pause in an ugly time, a reminder of women’s quiet impact in art, culture and the beauty all around us.
Words: Janice Breen Burns. Pictures: Photos of photos (by Robyn Lea).
Robyn Lea is that rare thing; a photographer who writes evocative prose, a writer who takes evocative photographs. She’s loaded that compelling combo into 12 books so far, including deeply intoxicating dives into the lives of artists Georgia O’Keeffe (Dinner with Georgia O’Keeffe, Assouline, 2017) and Jackson Pollock (Dinner with Jackson Pollack, Assouline, 2015), and this one, A Room of Her Own – Inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women, Thames & Hudson, released today.
Lea is married, mother of two, Melbourne-based, a seasoned traveller with a radar for beauty and a knack for attracting fascinating people. They’re the artists and writers, bohemians and aristocrats who pepper her books and friendship circles.
I confess I wish I had Lea’s easy warmth and sweet generosity, qualities vital for the kind of trust a body needs to gain admission to inner santums: the beautiful rooms her subjects wake in, the kitchens they cook in, the romantically ordinary and extraordinarily romantic apartments, villas, chateaux they call home.
Twenty women invited Lea into their lives for A Room of Her Own.
She rewarded their trust with reverance and joy, photographing their portaits, their rooms and gardens, writing literary vignettes to lightly capture their essence.
“As the early morning light rises over the citrus grove of their Sicilian farm, artist Fiona Corsini sweeps her hair into a loose bun, pinning it with three silk flowers…two blood-red blooms frame the third flower in the centre, a shade of bridesmaid pink – somehow hopeful..she wears them each day not only for adornment but to honour and keep close people she has loved and lost, and as a reminder of life’s fragility and beauty….” Robyn Lea
Lea captured the visual essence of artist Corsini, and creative entrepreneur Sue Townsend in Florence. She photographed the disparate definitions of “home” by artists Lisbeth McCoy, Petah Coyne, Jessica Grindstaff and Beatrix Ost in New York.
She travelled to Yucatan, Mexico for the artful opulence of cultural ambassador Dev Stern and back to Australia for shoots with fashion designer Heidi Middleton in Sydney and renowned jewellery designer Fiorina Golotta and her daughter photographer Francesca Golotta in Melbourne.
The culmination is 240 absorbingly glossy pages, an exotic story and picture book perfect, I’ve found, for propping on the “podium” of your bent knees at bedtime, a triggerer of calm and lovely dreams.
A room of Her Own – Inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women by Robyn Lea, $65, Thames&Hudson
