RIEL LIFE
Riel Life is a Dutch model who goes by the name of Emma Helena. She is known for her expressiveness, versatility and creativity. She started modeling professionally 6 years ago and is now working internationally with artists from all sorts of backgrounds.
At a height of 181 centimeters, Emma Helena is probably taller than the average model. What makes her truly unique are her compact and abstract posing skills.
With her endless range of facial expressions she will never cease to amaze you.
Riel Life (or Emma) originally started behind the camera and although nowadays she spends 75 percent of her time being photographed by other photographers, she will never stop taking photos and share her vision and what she feels.
Last year she published her first book containing +5 years of her work. Resulting in hard cover book, carrying a carefully curated selection of over 100 selfportraits on film.
Her biggest inspiration at the moment is her double exposure project. How do humans and nature connect or get disconnected? We are nature, we are just so detached from it.
Simple emotions or bodylanguage are combined with natural elements or other types of textures. Everything done in camera, purely on instinct and what feels right.
When Emma started with analog photography we were living in the COVID-ages. It was in the middle of the second lockdown and she felt quite close to becoming insane so she picked up her camera and started to take self-portraits. This resulted in 22 rolls of exposed film in less than a month.
After playing around with 35mm for 1.5 years she felt ready to take on a new challenge: medium format film.
One of her all time favourite female photographers is Vivian Maier and it was her dream to have her own two-eyed Rolleiflex at some point. This moment came sooner than expected. A photographer she worked with in the past sold her his mint-edition beauty, it was love at first sight between her and this gem of a camera. Since then, taking self-portraits has been more challenging as well as more satisfying. Most images you see down below were taken with this camera. Getting the focus right and running from the camera into your composition is half the fun, you should try it out!
One of her more recent passions is making cyanotypes from her negatives. You can view them here.
Besides photography and modelling, Emma loves all sort of ways to express herself such as singing, acting, painting, pottery and writing. This creative centipede will always be eager to learn and develop herself!
Do you like what she does?
Support her art by purchasing a ‘RIEL’ to add to your collection. Or consider to support her on Patreon or find art reference sets on her Gumroad.
