Ionesco

Irina Ionesco (1935). French photographer. After studying in Romania, she returned to Paris, where she still lives, in 1946. A famous dancer, she was forced to cut short her career after an accident. She became interested in painting, first of void spaces and then, after meeting Anouk, of figures. In 1965, she became interested in photography after receiving a reflex Nikon as a gift. Self-taught, she shot charming black and white portraiture in atmospheres influenced by her cultural roots: the surrealism of her friend Breton, symbolist painting, symbols of decadence, and theatricality of false lust. Among her favorite models, always photographed in a studio of baroque taste where mirrors were omnipresent, there was her daughter Eva, who appears in many of her works. Through remaining in contact with the artistic world, she worked in the field of fashion publishing from 1978 for the magazine Mode International.