Jenny Rova

The work ‘Emma vi’ (Emma we) took its beginning in spring 2001 when my sister’s husband was dying. I returned to Sweden, after several years of residence abroad, to help my sister out with her children. My return ‘home’ made me perceive myself and my surrounding differently.
The title ‘Emma vi’ refers to an expression I used as a little child when I was talking about myself and my older sister Emma. During the summer 2001 our relationship grew once again very strong, like it has been in our childhood. I was interested in comparing the different directions my and my sister’s life had taken during the last years.
‘Emma vi’ is an associative work. It contains many aspects and many different kinds of pictures: portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, pictures of the places and houses we use to live in, snapshots and staged photography. I was using very simple snapshot cameras in order to react fast and spontaneously.
I was photographing during a three-year period. Different questions came up and were of importance to me while working /oder: influenced me in my work, questions like: How can I, as a woman, photograph myself? How can I photograph children? etc. The series is part of a bigger body of work with an open end.