Ilona Mingajlo Jurgiel

Ilona Jurgiel lives and works in London. She is a professional photographer working on projects in art and documentary photography and pursuing her commercial career as a fashion/portraiture photographer. She graduated from the University of Westminster (BA Honours in Photographic Arts) and currently studies on the MA Photographic Studies course there.

"Cecile" forms part of a portraiture project exploring the notion of identity and objects as the signifiers of identification. The series depicts items found in a Goth woman's apartment (the series originally includes a portrait of her as well). Looking at how this private space is organised, the manifestation of style, Ilona shows how these things formulate the characteristics of the Gothic subculture, enacting the tension between performance and costume and authentic articulation of the self. By rejecting conformity, searching for alternative ways of being and unusual means of self-representation the Gothic creates identity, calling attention to difference. Dress, as the boundary between the individual and the social world, becomes a distinguishing sign. The tendency towards excess and drawing on the past is dominant in Gothic clothing. Every elaborate detail is important and has a fetishistic value. The Gothic dress generates both artifice and search of depth. It reinforces the Gothic emphasis on surface and spectacle but also allows focusing on interiority through self-expression.

Ilona has previously shown her work in places such as the Old Truman Brewery and the Polish Cultural Institute in London.