A ROOM OF HER OWN: PHOTOGRAPHER AND BEST SELLING AUTHOR ROBYN LEA
Thames & Hudson Assouline
Various Published In
Vogue USA, France & Spain
Each assignment is not just work — it is another adventure.
Having commenced her career in Milan as a photographers' assistant in 1990, Australian-born photographer, author and director Robyn Lea has worked internationally for almost three decades. Her work has been published in Vogue (USA, France and Spain), The New York Times, Marie Claire, Architectural Digest, T Magazine, Vogue Living, Elle Décor and Gourmet Traveller, amongst others.
Stepping inside the private homes of others is one of the great joys of her work as an author and photographer. From the magnificent palazzo in Venice to Georgia O'Keeffe's home in the high desert plains of New Mexico, she brings an intimate eye to spaces that hold entire lives within their walls.
In 2018, Lea was chosen as the official photographer to shoot Eternally Ritz — one of her personal favourite projects. The Ritz Paris had not released a coffee table book since 1978. Her latest title, A Room of Her Own (Thames & Hudson, 2021), features twenty artists and creators around the world — and is, in the words of those who have held it, insanely beautiful.
The Books
"Creative work is the thing that really fills my cup, and without it I am doomed to misery."
The homes she has entered — and the people who changed her.
Robyn's work takes her into the worlds of creative people around the globe, and she learns something from each experience. JJ Martin in Milan reminded her to trust intuition and be unafraid of the deepest self-exploration. Fiona Corsini in Florence inspired her to do more painting. Alice Stori Liechtenstein's castle in Austria reminded her that anything goes — and that is exactly the point.
Five hundred years on — a new era for women creators.
In the introduction to A Room of Her Own, Robyn floats the idea that we might be entering a period of new Renaissance. The work of women creators, thinkers, makers and innovators is being showcased on new platforms for the benefit of all.
In the 21st century, we are witnessing a much-needed democratisation of art, fashion, film, music and design. The voices of women can no longer be easily sidelined or ignored. The immediacy of connection between creator and collector, mentor and student, designer and buyer — makes it possible for more women to sidestep the patriarchal structures of the past.
The pandemic, too, played its role. Unable to travel to Italy for the A Room of Her Own cover shoot, Robyn directed it on Zoom from Melbourne — a tech assistant in Milan, the shot made across continents, in the way this new era demands creativity to move: without borders, without waiting for permission.
Exhibitions Around the World
Italy
Australia
USA
Italy
A photographer who enters rooms and finds worlds within them. A writer who enters lives and finds the whole of history. A woman building her own room, one book at a time.
Australia Based In
Melbourne Career Began
Milan, 1990 Latest Book
A Room of Her Own · Thames & Hudson · 2021
A collection of rare antique mirrors painted with scenes of daily life historically used as accessories for women of the Chinese court. Robyn created this still life in 2018 in Hong Kong at Teresa Coleman Fine Arts for the Assouline book ‘HONG KONG: Heritage, Art & Dreams.’ The background image features exquisite hand-painted wallpaper by De Gournay.
Stepping inside the private homes of others is one of the great joys of Robyn’s work as an author and photographer. She photographed this interior inside the magnificent home of Toto Bergamo Rossi in Venice for a coffee table book titled ‘Venetian Chic’, published by Assouline.
A picture-postcard view from the terrace at Arniano, the Tuscan farmhouse of interior designer Camilla Guinness and her daughters Amber and Claudia. Camilla designed the day beds - which she dressed in bold red and white stripes - along with the home's interiors. Her husband, the late Jasper Guinness, created the garden which includes an orchard, pool and a number of settings perfect for languid lunches and summer outdoor dinners. The much-loved home is also inhabited intermittently by guests of the Arniano Painting School - co-founded by Amber and artist/painting instructor William Roper-Curzon. The home is featured in Robyn’s book ‘A Room of Her Own: Inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women’, published by Thames and Hudson,