Valena came into our lives when my niece Anna was just three years old. Even though she was a product of Annas imagination Valena was still a tangible and omnipresent part of our lives.
When Anna and I played dress up, she would pick two dresses: one for herself and one for Valena, her imaginary sister always lingering in the present just outside of my reach.
“My sister. If I close my eyes she comes up to me and taps me on the shoulder. Then I know that she is right beside me.”
Anna’s peculiar thoughts and ideas have weaved together and created a girl beyond our world. Her invisible sister, her partner in crime, her doppelgänger.
I have been looking for Valena, and Anna has been my guide.
She has taken me by my hand and led me along the intricate strings of her mind. It is made of dreams and is a terrific place. It seems to me that her world is a place where anything is possible.
These days Valena is slipping away. As Anna gets older, Valena grows smaller. This is my way of immortalizing her.
This story was made as a book in March 2020 in an edition of 10 by Laura Bisgaard Krogh. All photographs taken between 2018 and 2020.
Aside from the printed cover each book has a dust cover that is also a print. There are five different covers - each one a different picture from the book. They can be taken off and used as posters.
Anna contributed to this project in many ways. Aside from providing all the stories about her and Valena's adventures she also contributed with ideas for portraits and text, made drawings and wrote the title on the cover of the book.
