The artist of Romanian origin, born on September 3, 1930, died at the age of 91 on Monday July 25 at the Rothschild hospital in Paris after having had several strokes, added Eva Ionesco. “My mother has made me suffer a lot all my life”she confided, while recognizing a “undeniable talent” of photographer. “We can’t take this talent away from him”pointed out his daughter.
Icon of the fashion world, Irina Ionesco had gained notoriety in the 1970s, in particular thanks to her erotic shots of her daughter Eva. In his autobiographical novel children of the night published in March 2022, Eva Ionesco mentioned the abuse of her mother, who photographed her in suggestive poses from the age of four and then made her shoot in erotic films.
In a film called My Little Princess, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, Eva returned to this troubled period. The actress Isabelle Huppert played the role of her mother. At the end of a lawsuit brought at the time of the release of the film, Eva Ionesco had obtained a ban on any new marketing of her photos, then qualified by the magistrates as those “of a very young child or a very young girl, sexualized in an unhealthy way and with a degrading character for her”.
Eva Ionesco hadn’t seen her mother in 15 years but ended up “overcome fear” thanks to his son who encouraged him to go talk to him before his death. “You can’t forgive someone who has hurt you so much. Forgiveness is hard. But you can talk to people. I was able to talk to her before she died.”, did she say. Irina Ionesco gave him and his grandson their negatives.
Born in Paris to a violinist father and a trapeze artist mother, the photographer was abandoned at the age of four. Sent to Romania, she grew up in the circus world with her grandmother and her uncles.
Photography came relatively late. His first exhibition in 1970 was a success. We see women in theatrical and seductive poses, adorned with lace, pearls, artificial flowers and surrounded by fetishistic objects. Its gothic and sensual style makes it an icon for many designers.