Ira Lupu

Photographer

Ira Lupu is a photographer, multimedia artist, and writer born in Odesa, Ukraine, and currently based in New York City. She is a graduate of the New Media Narratives program at the International Center of Photography (NYC), and Viktor Marushchenko’s School of Photography (Kyiv). Ira Lupu’s work explores the intersection of documentary and metaphorical space, where the carefully researched human worlds collide with ethereality. A core part of her photography is centered around the female experience — in her own body, emotional mind, or given environment. Her ongoing project “On Dreams and Screens” focuses on the experiences of six online sex workers in Ukraine and the US, and explores the place where an electronic body transitions into a real one. Initially supported by the Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, the project was published in the British Journal of Photography, Vogue Italia, i-D, and exhibited through Copenhagen Photo Festival, Bristol Photo Festival, Verzasca Foto Festival, and Odesa Photo Days. Previously, Ira did numerous projects on underrepresented communities, marginal cultural heroes, and political crises of Eastern Europe, Japan, and the US. They were published in the New York Times, Vice, Dazed, InStyle, Folha de S.Paulo, among others. She is a selected participant of CENTER Santa Fe 2021 (HurleyMedia Scholarship Award), NOOR-Nikon Academy 2021, Eddie Adams XXXIII (B&H Award), and part of Diversify.Photo and Women Photograph Chapter Kyiv.