Irina Dora Magurean; Photography
Irina Dora Magurean is an artist from Cluj, Romania, an inspiring figure in the field of photography.
She has a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Arts and Design where she currently lectures. She’s received study grants from MOME ( Budapest) and the Academy of Art and Architecture in Prague. Not only is she a photographer but she also runs an art space called Camera, situated in an contemporary art centre from Cluj (Centrul de Interes). Camera is focused in promoting photography more specifically, artists working in the field of photography. She recently opened a smaller space, Camera Project Space, focused in promoting Romanian young talents experimenting with photography.
Greatest inspirations or influences?
It’s hard to say.. i can get my inspiration from a detail in a specific artwork or even from garbage thrown on the ground in an interesting shape., even from the way sunlight creates shadows and reflections in a certain space.
I like the works of Robert Mapplethorpe and of Etel Adnan.
Challenges of what you do, and how do you see the art world changing in this coming decade?
One of my challenges is the way I present my work, especially nowadays, when photography is so common, I consider it very hard to present photography as an artwork and something unique. This is also one of the reasons I turned to polaroid photography because they are already objects on their own- the polaroid photograph is the exact moment one is shooting and it can’t be repeated (in compare to the film photography or the digital one). It is just that one shot and then it’s gone to the past, becoming the memory of what happened. About this next decade in the art world, I think it will bring a big development in the domain of virtual reality; I think social media, specially instagram, will influence the development and the perception we have about art and probably it will grow the number of nostalgics that will work with older techniques adapted to nowadays.
Favourite websites, publications or social media handles?
There are a few I follow regularly, for example Der Greif, Foam, different galleries and institutions.
I use social media professionally and I am really fascinated about the richness of image (instagram). I remember the day I installed the app on my phone, about 3 years ago and spent almost the whole day looking through images, like an addiction.
Dream project for you?
Having some more time to work in the darkroom. I started a series of contact prints and photograms some years ago, now I have got new ideas for larger sized works which I would like to create one day.
Anything else you'd like to share with us?
Beside my abstract art works I really like taking pictures of the sea.. i am fascinated how it changes its shades during a day; you have the feeling it always looks the same, but its always different.
