Eva: Eloge De Ma Fille

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of Art Photography
Review: Separated from her parents at a young age, French-born Irina Ionesco was raised by her grandmother in Romania. Despite the love and attention showered upon her by her Grandmother and her uncles she always felt the sadness of her missing mother and father. Tragedy struck again when the "man of her life", her beloved husband suffered an early death. But before departing from this world, they shared in the joy of giving birth to the little girl that Irina says, "had always been part of my dreams". But even this joyous event was a struggle, for Eva, as she was named, had to fight to live the first month of her life, as a birthing mistake necessitated that she spend her early days in an incubator.

Irena recalls that it was her prayers that saved her baby girl. "She was the most wonderful thing that could happen. In order to maintain every moment of this irreplaceable dream, she turned into the most beautiful little girl of all time...She personified an angel."

This book is a mesmerizing collection of photographs, that were themselves a tribute to that little girl who became Irina's whole world. Much of the work was and remains controversial. Irena captured her little girl in various states of undress, often dolled-up adorned with makeup and jewelry. Despite its controversy, Irina's material with Eva is her most famous body work and fans of this collection with love this book. Unlike Irina's other books, where images of Eva are part of her larger body of work, this one is centered completely around what she created with her beloved daughter. As a single publication of Irina Ionesco's work, Eva: Eloge De Ma Fille stands as the masterpiece that every great artist deserves. This is a must have for all serious collectors.

Rating:
Summary: beautiful and disturbing
Review: This is an amazing body of work, and one might think it was done in the 1920's as the style is sort of the flapper mode. Irina chronicles her daughter as she grows from a young child to a young women. It is disturbing as one cannot look at the pictures of Eva as a young child and not think of the tragedy of Jon Benet. Eva as a little child is made up as a siren with a combination of innocence and provocation. That combination is what makes this such a compelling body of work, but also perhaps disturbing. More than one photo seemed to have some white specks, either from dust on the negative or a problem in printing. The composition and settings show a fine eye for photography and this is a wonderful collection. There is a lushness to the settings and a great variety. In the shots where Eva is looking directly at the camera, she appears to be looking right through the viewer. One will not forget these great shots.