Nadia Lee Cohen Releases Her Most Personal Project Yet
Documenting a visit with her family in Ohio for the first time in 20 years.
Fashion’s favorite photographer, Nadia Lee Cohen, is releasing another book, and you don’t want to miss this one. Titled Holy Ohio, the photography volume marks one of Cohen’s most personal and introspective projects to date.
Known for her surreal, hyper-stylized imagery, Cohen has previously worked with celebrities such as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Zendaya, and has crafted campaigns for Balenciaga, YSL and other luxury houses. A fixture in the front rows of fashion weeks, she continues to blur the boundaries between celebrity and artistry. With Holy Ohio, however, Cohen turns the lens inward, revealing a side of herself and her background that rarely surfaces.
Designed to physically resemble a Bible, the book allows Cohen to experiment with both form and narrative. The photographer documents her return to her extended family in Ohio, her first visit in two decades, confronting fragmented childhood memories while immersing herself in the rhythms of rural American life. The result is a body of work that is candid yet unsentimental.
Holy Ohio is produced in partnership with WePresent, the arts platform of WeTransfer, and distributed by IDEA Books, joining the ranks of visionary collaborations the platforms are known for. Earlier this year, Cohen published a project with Martin Parr and IDEA Books, in which she portrayed a fictionalized version of her childhood babysitter.
Reflecting on the project, Cohen shared, “Ohio was my first introduction to anything overtly American outside of the television.” On revisiting the house she once knew, she adds, “There was a coziness to the chaos, and I was at the age where I found any kind of dispute or dysfunctionality exciting.” Holly Fraser, editor in chief of WePresent, describes the work as “an unflinching, raw and idiosyncratic portrait of a family that we can all relate to.”
Holy Ohio will be released on December 12 at IDEA Books and Dover Street Market. Cohen will also sign early copies during a preview event at Dover Street Market London on December 3.
