Iryna Vozniak is a visual artist and photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her work explores the intersection of abstract form, architectural structure, and emotional perception through the transformation of everyday materials. With a background in international law and photography studies at the Kyiv School of Photography and Form. She has developed a visual language shaped by the legacy of modernism and her personal experience and is deeply inspired by the avant-garde and minimalism. 

Over the past two years, her projects  have been recognized by international awards such as the International Photo Awards, Prix de la Photographie Paris, Tokyo and Budapest International Foto Awards, and the London Photography Awards. She has also exhibited in Kyiv, Paris, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Budapest, and Athens, and featured in books including 100 Ukrainian Contemporary Photographers (Form, France), Fresh Eyes 2024 (GUP, Netherlands), and The 2024 Annual International Photography Awards Book (USA).

Working with paper has become both a material and a metaphor in my artistic practice. Paper, in its simplicity, fragility, and responsiveness, offers me a language with which I can express the complexity of space, memory, and emotion. I do not treat it as a mere surface to draw or paint on – for me, paper is a living structure, a space of transformation, a body that carries its own memory.

This series is, for me, a conversation with the great artists of the past – a quiet dialogue rooted in the legacy of modernism and the avant-garde of the 20th century. I draw inspiration from their radical approaches to form, perception, and abstraction, yet I reinterpret those influences through a contemporary lens, shaped by personal emotion and lived experience. It is both a tribute and a reinterpretation.

Each photograph is deeply personal and unique. It begins with an intuitive gesture – a fold, a tear, a layer – which then becomes the foundation for a silent exchange between intention and material. I do not impose strict control over the outcome. Instead, I allow the material to speak back to me. Paper records every touch, every movement. A fold is a line of memory. A tear is an event. Each mark becomes not a flaw, but a trace of the process itself – evidence of the work’s evolution.

My compositions often appear architectural – built from modular forms, overlapping layers, and repeated shapes. Yet they are never rigid. Geometry here is softened and disrupted. The edge of a ripped piece of paper can hold as much emotional tension as a brushstroke. Light and shadow become integral components, transforming the surface into a dynamic space. As light shifts, so do the forms, the depth, the color relationships. This fluidity reflects the living quality of perception itself – constantly changing, never fixed.

Color in this photographic series moves between calm and expressive. Some images are built on soft, muted tones; others pulse with bolder, more emotional hues. I didn’t plan the palette in advance. Instead, I responded to each moment intuitively, letting my emotional state guide the decisions. Depending on how I felt, the colors became either quiet or intense, soft or saturated. The results feel honest – not composed for harmony, but unfolding naturally through mood, light, and the surface of the paper itself.

I think of these works as meditations. They require time – time to make, time to see. They do not shout for attention, but invite the viewer to slow down, to look closely, to notice how a line curves or a shadow shifts. In a world saturated with noise and images, this quiet presence is its own kind of resistance – a reclaiming of attention, a commitment to presence.

Paper is also, for me, a metaphor for memory and the body. It responds to pressure, to time, to light. It wrinkles, bends, tears. It absorbs and records. There is something deeply human in that – a shared vulnerability. When I work with paper, I feel as though I’m engaging with something that understands fragility, that carries the imprint of every encounter.

There is also something poetic in the way paper holds contradictions – it is both strong and delicate, flat and sculptural, structured and free. My goal is not to resolve these oppositions, but to reveal them. I want the viewer to feel that tension, to witness the dialogue between what is intentional and what is accidental.

At the heart of this work lies the idea of transformation – how something ordinary can become extraordinary when approached with attention and care. It’s about the fragility of the moment, the way ideas are born and fade, and the quiet beauty that often lives in simplicity. Through this lens, even the most familiar subjects take on new meaning, inviting the viewer to pause, to feel, and to see differently.

Ultimately, this project is about presence and process. It is about listening to materials, embracing imperfection, and finding poetry in the everyday. I believe that even the most modest materials – like paper – can carry immense meaning if we allow them to speak. My role as an artist is not to dominate the material, but to collaborate with it – to engage in a shared process of exploration and discovery.

I hope that when people encounter these works, they feel invited into that process – that they see not just the finished image, but the story behind each fold, each tear, each quiet interaction. Because in the end, what matters most to me is not the perfection of the object, but the honesty of the experience.

To find out more about Iryna’s work, visit her website here. 

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