Photographer #191: Irene Andessner

Irene Andessner, 1954, Austria, has been focusing on the self-portrait since 1988. In the beginning she realised her portraits through paintings, but from the mid-90's in tableaux vivants, photography and video stagings. She gets into the roles of various women such as the Black Madonna, Rachael from the movie Bladerunner or Marlene Dietrich. Not only women are being portrayed, in 2006 she interpreted the traditional but questionably authentic portrait of Mozart. She released the Book I Am Irene Andessner which shows her works between 1995 and 2003. I Am (present tense) because she herself gives absolutely contemporary expression to historical figures. The following images come from the series Citylights [Vienna], Ida/Artemis/Merian and Donne Illustri.

Website: www.andessner.com
(Video in German)

Photographer #113: Irene Kung

Irene Kung, Switzerland, 1958, started her career as a painter and with success, but it has only been in the last several years that she has fully concentrated on photography. Her images are dark and isolate the objects or subjects she photographs. She has photographed architecture in several cities in Europe and in New York, but she manages to capture a detailed look that the human eye will not perceive. Next to photographing architecture she has also made pictures of animals, trees and mountains. The following images come from the series Italy, Trees and Animals.

Website: www.irenekung.com
(Video in Italian)