IRINA IONESCO PHOTOGRAPHED
HER DAUGHTER EVA IN PROVO-
CATIVE POSES THROUGHOUT THE
1970s. EVA WAS FIVE YEARS OLD IN
1970. AT ELEVEN SHE WAS
PLAYBOY'S YOUNGEST EVER NUDE MODEL. THE WHOLE BUSINESS WAS DEPLORABLE. THE PICTURES
SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN TAKEN.
BUT THEY WERE. HOPEFULLY NOW, MORE THAN ANYTHING, THEY
PROJECT THE INDELIBLE SPIRIT OF THEIR SUBJECT, THE REMARKABLE
EVA IONESCO.
Eva was five years old in 1970 when her mother began one of the most controversial photographic projects ever. What was she thinking? Anywhere between five and eleven is too young. Anywhere between five and fifteen and probably beyond is surely nobody's business but the model - let alone the mother.
Of course they are good. They are famously good. Irina may not have been a photographer of the greatest range or technical ability but she was a fantasist with an incredible ability to create surreality. The rooms were hers, the clothes her own, the fabrics her family's, and the models her friends (and of course her daughter).
Just beyond beautiful! We have twenty original Irina Ionesco photographic prints from the mid-seventies. Many of these would have been used as match prints for IDEA Books' favourite Mode International magazine. It is an important collection. They are all black and white and mostly
15 by 10 inches. See the link here. They are quite exceptionally special.
Again a dream. If there were no nudity, no provocative poses, no lending out to older male photographers and no shoots in pornographic magazines, the whole enterprise could have been a triumph. But it wasn't like that. Eva has since sued her mother and directed a film of her own regrettable experiences. It was actually a tragedy. Albeit of staggering beauty.