Polish (based in the United Kingdom) · Contemporary fine-art photography
Iness Rychlik
b. Poland
Iness Rychlik is a Polish-born, UK-based photographer and filmmaker known for dark, surreal self-portraits about pain, solitude and vulnerability, including the image Revenge.
1 work in the collection
Works by Iness Rychlik
Iness Rychlik is a contemporary photographer and filmmaker, born in Poland and based in the United Kingdom, who works almost entirely in staged self-portraits. Her images are elegant on the surface and unsettling underneath, and one of the best known is Revenge, a cropped, faceless study of a woman in a slipping negligee whose ringed hand is stained red.
Work and themes
Rychlik uses her own body as model and canvas. On her own account, she lives with severe myopia and a chronic skin condition, and her subjects grow out of personal experience: pain, isolation, vulnerability, and growing up in a conservative, patriarchal society. She tends to hide or crop the face, avoiding readable expressions, so that gesture, costume and a few telling details carry the meaning. She has said she wants to provoke the viewer's imagination rather than satisfy it.
The pictures are built like paintings. Palettes are narrow, backgrounds dark and plain, light soft and directional; vintage lingerie, lace, antique jewelry and flowers recur. Many images quote the poses of old-master painting, such as the modest Venus covering her breast, and then twist them toward something more ambiguous. Her work belongs to a strand of contemporary photography that revisits the femme fatale and the suffering heroine from the woman's side of the camera, a counterpoint to images such as Munch's Vampire, where the dangerous woman is seen by a man.
Recognition
Her website lists a single-image win at the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award (2020), the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for fine art (2020), and a place on the shortlist of the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize (2025). Her film work includes The Dark Box, nominated for a Golden Tadpole at the Camerimage festival in 2016. She has exhibited in London, Kraków, Barcelona, Lisbon, Munich, New York and California, including solo shows at the Delphian Gallery, London (Live Canvas, 2025).
Where to see her work
Rychlik publishes her self-portraits and limited-edition prints through her own website and shows with galleries in Europe and the United States. Explore related imagery in Dark Academia and Famous Paintings of Women.
Questions & answers
Who is Iness Rychlik?
Iness Rychlik is a Polish-born photographer and filmmaker based in the United Kingdom. She is known for dark, surreal, painterly self-portraits exploring pain, solitude and vulnerability, and has won awards including a 2020 British Journal of Photography International Photography Award.
What is Revenge by Iness Rychlik about?
Revenge is a cropped self-portrait of a woman's torso in a slipping cream negligee, one ringed hand smeared with red. Rychlik avoids explaining her images; the title suggests injury and retribution, but the picture shows only stillness and an unexplained stain, leaving the story to the viewer.
Are Iness Rychlik's photographs self-portraits?
Yes. Rychlik works mainly in staged self-portraiture, using her own body as model. She often crops or conceals her face and uses costume, gesture and props to suggest a narrative, drawing on old-master painting and her own experience.