Photography by Ilona Jurgiel

FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE VISIT MY WEBSITE!

http://lightpainting.co.uk/


Biography:

Ilona Jurgiel lives and works in London. She is a professional photographer working on projects in art and documentary photography and pursuing her commercial career as a fashion/portraiture/product photographer. She has graduated from the University of Westminster (BA Honours in Photographic Arts) and recently completed the MA Photographic Studies course there. Her work has been shown internationally; in the UK in galleries such as The Old Truman Brewery, P3, the Polish Cultural Institute (London), and the View from the Top (Nottingham).

Interests: photography, (Asian) ball jointed dolls, psychoanalysis, literature, music (especially The Cure, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the like....), everything Gothic and Victorian, magic, Surrealism, alternative fashion, festivals, hair extensions, travelling, .....

Email for a CV please or call 07984161315.

"Showrooms 2005"
Ilona Jurgiel’s Showrooms 2005 is an innovative project based on the idea of duality of spheres: private and public, individual and institutionalised, characteristic and depersonalised, and the crossover between them. Ilona Jurgiel takes those ideas further, to enhance her concept of illustrating the interaction between people and institutionalised spaces that were created to encourage trade, spaces of familiar and ‘homely’ appearances that are in fact constructed to sell a product, and act as a prescription of style. Human reactions in such spaces suggest that there is no sharp borderline between the real and the fake, the prescribed and the individual. The act of transferring exhibited models of interiors into a real living space starts already in the domestic furniture showrooms. People ‘blend in’ in the ready-made living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, and copy the existing ideas in their own homes.
In the era of commodity fetishism, when we buy things not necessarily because we need them, when we are being bombarded by advertisements on television, radio and in magazines, the idea of individual style or choice begins to dissolve. The consumer also becomes a product of trade. We become commodities ourselves.

Wirow. Ex-brick works.

"Soundless" series, 2005-2006. The photograph is a part of the "Touch" exhibition which was held at the Polish Cultural Institute, London, from the 4th to the 26th May 2006.

The touch of history alters every landscape – be it mental or physical space. Ilona Jurgiel photographs places visibly changed as a result of certain events, areas that had been marked by the past and became symbols of the present and olden times. These remains of the past contain the very history of today's society within their fabric. Interestingly, Jurgiel’s photographs explore these histories; they recall the immediate post-communist reality in Poland and other Eastern European countries that were once occupied by the Soviet Union. The photographs are intentionally not personal in the immediate sense; they are more about history in a wider context of continuity, closure and change. There is more to these images than showing relicts of the gone. Ilona Jurgiel concentrates on the current situation, human ignorance, and selfishness which allowed the photographed places to decay, even though the overall situation in the new EU countries does not suggest that such waste could be justified. Next to the photographed debris of old buildings, that were once stables, barns, warehouses, brick works or primary schools, grow numerous posh villas and estates. Surprisingly, the documented places were once used and full of life. Nowadays the private owners simply refuse to sell them, and allow them to become ruins... The lands with the leftovers will eventually be sold but their value will have become incomparable to what it used to be...

Since I adore ball jointed dolls with their beauty and endless possibilities, I suggest you have a look at these (careful, they're addictive! ^^)

Den of Angels (forum): http://www.denofangels.com//forums/
Nina's LJ: http://enigmadoll.livejournal.com/ (amazing work!!)