Emma Boittiaux works semi-autobiographically using photography, writing, embroidery and print to examine collective experience. With ideas of safety and tenderness at the forefront, life’s bruises become manifest through an exploration of her own ties with the land, masculinity, violence and relationships.
Based in London, Boittiaux was born in Normandy, France. The intimacy of her grandmother’s linen runs through her work, bringing the rhythm of rural France to her process and embodying traces of a place she left a decade ago. A lyrical dichotomy plays out through the slowness of the embroidery, the immediacy of digital photography and the centrality of research and writing. The decision to embroider every bead by hand onto the linen ground is an ode to a rhythm where slowness has become an act of resistance.
For Boittiaux, slowing down in our embrace with the work, our communities and environment, is the only way – de faire lien. Boittiaux is crafting a world that moves with care and gentleness, continuously oscillating between comforting beauty and the discomfort of the unresolved.
Her photograph from the series ‘Take Care Of Your Brother’ won the prestigious Portrait of Britain award in 2023. In 2025, she published her first story, ‘A Quiet Rape’. A mix of poetry and prose to explore three generations of women trying to find the words to speak about the unspeakable: war, intimacy, sexual violence, and rape.
Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at leading London institutions, including the ICA and Palmer Gallery, and has been selected for Les Rencontres Photographiques d'Arles Off in France. Her images have appeared in publications like We Are by the Royal Photographic Society, WIP, and PhotoVogue.
She graduated from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, in 2017 and is represented by Artiq since 2024.

Photography credits Riki Auton for Artiq
“Boittiaux’s photography is delicate and contemplative – picking out subtle moments from the everyday: light bleeding through curtains, plants casting shadows, hands clasping together. In Stay Longer, the artist takes a multidisciplinary approach – bridging lens-based image-making with textile craft.”
Phoebe at Aesthetica Magazine
AWARDS
PRESS
Portrait Of Britain 2023 - Vol.6
Winner
ASC Pearlescent 30 Years Anniversary
Exhibition Award with Aesthetica Magazine
Winner
Hands - On Journal: Emma Boittiaux The Quiet Power Of Slowness
Artiq Journal: In Conversation with Samira Addo and Emma Boittiaux
Radical Art Review: En Son Sein, A manifesto against female bodies’ sexualisation
EXHIBITIONS
PUBLISHED WORK & WRITING PIECES
Secret 7
War Child UK, 180 Studios, London, 2026
Scrumping Apples
Small Works Gallery, Online, 2026
ED001 Fragments
Hypha Curates, South Bank, London, 2026
Tidal Resistance
MaTa Collective curated by Yuyan Mia Zhang, Palmer Gallery, London, 2026
A Line Has Time In It
Carta Magna by Vittoria Beltrame, 65 Charlotte Street, London 2026
Love Letter to London
Monad - Proposition Studios, London, 2025
Tngbl.Art
Supper Club by Tamara Manova - London, 2025
Sign Up
(ICA) Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2025
Dolce Far Niente
Myma curated by Vittoria Beltrame, Online, 2025
Pearlescent
The Handbag Factory, London, 2025
Faces by Art Icon
Festival Arles Off, Arles, July 2025
IWD London Heritage Quarter x Artiq
London Heritage Quarter, London, March 2025
Love
Photobook Cafe, London, February 2025
SOTA x Schroder
Schroder Headquarters, London, December 2024
In/Between
ASC Studios, London, November 2024
Corporeality by Art Icone
Bastille Design Centre, Paris, November 2024
This Homeland by Responsa Foundation
Touring across three London hospitals, September 2024 to January 2025
The Bound is Always By Scent
ASC Studios, London, July 2023
Portrait Of Britain
British Journal of Photography, billboards across London, January 2023
En Son Sein - Solo show
Juju Bar & Stage Truman Brewery, 6th of October 2022 - October 2023
Every Women Biennial
Copeland Gallery, London, July 2021
Becoming Habits Chapter 1,2,3
Studi0 Gallery, St Moritz, February 2021
Queer ART(IST)S Now
The MillCo Project, London, March 2020
Consciousness
The Room, Venice, September 2019
Balance
Springcourt Factory, Paris, November 2017
#Tribe17 International Art Festival
Oxo Tower, London, October 2017
Essay 'If Only She Knew The Name Of Her River'
Parenthesis Review
UK, 2026
PhotoVogue Published - Best of PhotoVogue & Pic of the Day
Photographs and poems from the series 'Avec Eux'
We Are Magazine - Royal Photographic Society WIP
2024
Photographs from the series 'Stay Longer'
Original Magazine
UK 2024
Photographs and words on the series 'She's Here For Them'
Hedonist Magazine
UK, 2023
Photography series 'En Son Sein'
Heroica Magazine
UK, 2022
Poem published in 'Funeral for a Womb'
Book published by Sunday Mornings At The River
Netherlands, 2022.