UNSEEN EMILY RATAJKOWSKI. EXCLUSIVE EDITION - 1st edition - ULTRA BOOK

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limited Art Edition of 990 copies. Crash Numbered and signed by the photographer.

118 Pages. 9" x 11". Gold Leaf Cover and Spine.

Leder's Original Polaroids from this book will be on display this March at VOLTA NY, booth C16 c/o The Castor Gallery.

Before she was a controversial video vixen, a celebrated Hollywood actress, an international runway sensation, and a feminist lightning rod, Emily Ratajkowski was an aspiring L.A. model taking jobs her agency recommended. That’s what brought her to Woodstock, N.Y., for two fateful days—and more importantly nights—in May 2012. It was then she met photographer Jonathan Leder, who shot the 103 seductive Polaroids featured in Ratajkowski, the luxurious new photo book from Imperial Publishing .

This volume expands on Imperial’s previous, sold out, edition of Ratajkowski photos by presenting 32 never-before-seen images of the raven-haired, full-lipped beauty. Posing in white nighties, black lingerie, and often nothing at all, Ratajkowski exudes both the playful sexuality she’d bring to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video and the dramatic sensuality she’d harness for David Fincher’s 2014 psychological thriller Gone Girl.

The Luxury Edition features new high-resolution scans, and is bound in a lush 130lb cover with gold foil stamping, and a at a 9” x 11”print size — is perfect for showcasing Leder’s artistry and the smoldering sex appeal of his soon-to-be-famous subject.

There’s also a brand-new foreword by art historian Susan Rothschild, who paraphrases the words of philosopher Alexander Nehamas: “The only reaction appropriate to beauty is love; the desire to possess it.” In his afterword, Leder recalls noticing something enchanting about the girl who stepped off the bus on Woodstock’s village green, though he never guessed he was dealing with a future superstar. “She was well dressed and attractive, perhaps a bit more petite than your average model,” Leder writes. But once he took her back to the small cape-style house he’d rented for the summer, something extraordinary happened.

Leder’s photos reveal the strong confident young woman who clearly feels comfortable to be herself and have some fun. She’s got the pouty red lips and come-hither glances you’d expect from a beautiful young model hired to seduce the camera, and yet Ratajkowski gives Leder something unique. Expertly positioned on vintage floral rugs and furniture that evokes childhood vacation memories, Ratajkowski is a midcentury pin-up queen with a millennial edge. Forget that fool’s errand of trying to possess beauty. Leder’s photos of Ratajkowski perform a different sort of magic trick. They preserve for all eternity an intimate moment between two people that can never be recreated.

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