Featured Artist Irina Hurme | Artsy Shark

Through bold experimentation, Irina Hurme pushes photography beyond documentation, into a realm of visual surprise. Visit her website to see more.

I’m a visual artist using photography as my medium. I create contemporary fine art that transforms real subjects into abstract and unexpected visual experiences.

My path to becoming an artist has been anything but traditional. After working in international marketing with various consumer brands, I launched my own studio as a product photographer and retoucher. That commercial experience taught me how precision, light and visual storytelling shape perception. These lessons continue to influence my artistic approach and have made me a more creative, daring and experimental visual artist.

Disruption has become central to how I work. I use techniques from both photography, such as light painting, macro photography etc., and retouching. Pixels are shaped like pigments or clay to give the works a painterly appearance. This transforms the ordinary into something visually striking. As an emerging artist, I currently have ongoing series that together explore the dialogue between the pictorial and the surreal. Each artwork investigates how light, texture and abstraction can transform perception.

In the Dancing Lights series I use artificial light as my brush. I capture rhythm, color and motion through long exposure and LED light painting, where music becomes movement and light turns into energy.

In others, like Rust & Paint and LOOK!, the work explores the fusion of traditional macro photography and artistic expression. Details dissolve into vibrant surfaces and reflections, echoing contemporary pictorialism while revealing what already exists within the photographic pixels. The hidden hues, prisms of light and textures are not immediately visible to the naked eye. Through carefully constructed compositions and refined retouching, the line between photography and painting disappears. It leaves a dreamlike tension that feels both intimate and visually immersive.

My Floral Abstract works reinterpret organic forms through close observation and abstraction. By manipulating natural elements I aim to evoke emotion. I invite viewers to reconsider their perception of floral beauty.

In contrast, the DOLLS series delves into surreal, narrative imagery. Photographed in an abandoned villa that inspired the entire concept, these works explore loneliness and abandonment. These emotions surface through the stillness and composition.

Whether experienced on a physical wall or on a screen, my goal is to create contemporary fine art photography focused on large-format, gallery-grade acrylic prints. I create artworks that stand out as extraordinary pieces in their own right. They elevate any space through their scale, clarity and material presence, and invite viewers to feel and discover something new with each gaze.

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