There would be nothing new in a woman posing as a femme fatale, surrounded by
feathers and lying languidly all covered head to toe only with jewels. But in
these photos taken by Irina Ionesco, the femme fatale is a child. The opulence
of decorations, the excess of luxury objects, the decadent beauty and the
laziness of the models were the remarkable signs of Irina Ionesco photography,
obsessed by Vanitas symbols like mirrors and skulls and inspired by Victorian
era.
Even if Eva was completely unaware of what her body naked could evoke, her
mother knew it well and was able to exploit the ambiguity of a baby-sex
symbol for easy and predictable commercial gains.
So Eva appeared
in softporn movies, heavily criticized at that time, like Spermula
(1976) and Maladolescenza (1977) in which she appeared naked.
" ROCAILLE"
...we are born under the same star.
Born in Paris 3 september 1935 to a violinist father and trapeze artist mother,
Ionesco was abandoned at age four and shipped off to Romania to be brought up by
her grandmother and circus family uncles.
She dreamt of being a dancer but with a tiny frame and supple
body wound up a snake-lady contortionist, touring cabarets in Europe, Africa and
the Middle East with two giant boas for seven years, from 15 to 22.
"I was a slave to the boas, in the end I'd had enough," she
says, recalling the fastidiousness of feeding the reptiles, keeping them warm
and hauling them from hotel bath to hotel bath.
... Photography came late - and haphazardly, like much of her
life.
The old pre-digital-era Nikon F camera she still uses - along
with tungsten lighting - dates back to Christmas of '64, a gift from her partner
of the time, avant-garde Belgian artist Corneille.
"There're make-up people, stylists, but all anyone asks is for me to be me. They
want my universe, my theatrical pictures, my literary memories. Anywhere I
shoot, the pictures become mine."
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