Born in Moscow, Rozovsky studied Spanish and French at Tufts University and went on to receive her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in May 2007. A mentor to incoming students at MassArt, Rozovsky has also served as a teaching assistant to Harvard University professor Sharon Harper and an exhibitions photographer in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard. Her exhibition record includes Faces of Boston, a juried group show at Boston City Hall, and Boston Young Contemporaries, juried by Kiki Smith, Gideon Bok, and Laura Donaldson, at BU's 808 Gallery. Rozovsky will be featured in Duke's Center for Documentary Studies' forthcoming publication, 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers (2008), as selected by renowned photographer Sylvia Plachy.

- Leslie K. Brown, PRC Curator

Click here for Rozovsky's website.

When I am making a photograph of a certain person in a certain place, I am more concerned about what that particular moment feels like, rather than precisely describing how it looks. For me, a lasting image is one that reveals the photographer's emotional dedication, sincerity and captivation with the subject. In a way, I photograph for the same reasons that lie beneath anyone's instinct to take a photograph—be it of a friend, a sunset, an event—not only to record the facts, but to capture proof of a feeling. I like the idea that I am part of a larger, common practice of making pictures and the human urge to memorialize moments. Perhaps it confirms that we are alive and part of the world.

I am photographing the same things that one finds shuffling through a regular family photo album. Yet although I photograph people and places in my life, I aim for the photos to have a universality that makes them accessible and recognizable to anyone. These are photos of people I know, but I am not showing exclusive relationships—they are open to the viewer and flexible to interpretation. The people in my photographs exist outside my connection to them.

My ideal photograph can trigger a personal memory or association in the viewer similar to the way a specific aroma can suddenly call to mind a place from the past—something familiar yet not entirely nameable.

- Irina Rozovsky, 2007

Click on each image for larger version and caption.