In a world increasingly lacquered in filters and feigned perfection, Iness Rychlik dares to turn the lens on the unretouched — skin etched by pain, emotion tangled in sinew, vulnerability raw and sublime. The Polish-born, UK-based photographer’s self-portraits are not simply visual works; they are corporeal confessions, provocations, and affirmations of resilience.

Rychlik’s body, afflicted by a hypersensitive skin condition, becomes her living canvas. Her portraits capture not only the aesthetic terrain of physical suffering but the metaphysical space where agony and agency coexist. She does not photograph herself in spite of her pain — she photographs herself through it.

Pain as Palette: Reclaiming the Narrative of Illness

Pain will always find its way to the surface, for me, the healthiest way to deal with it is through art.

– Rychlik reflects.

Rychlik’s work slices through the silence with needlepoint precision. Each welt, each red imprint, every pressed pattern becomes part of a visual lexicon, a language for things unsaid. Her photograph “Beyond Repair”, which won 2nd Prize in the 2023 INPRNT Photography Award, is a staggering example: ephemeral drawings swell from her skin like ancient glyphs, narrating what words often can’t.

There’s an eerie tenderness in her frames. Props like corsets, pins, and antique fabric become relics of a gothic femininity — wounded but defiant.

It’s hard to dance with a devil on your back.

– Florence Welch may have said it best.

But Rychlik? She dances anyway.

Mindful Masochism: The Ritual Behind the Frame

Artistic beauty often conceals labor. In Rychlik’s case, it’s ritualistic, almost sacramental. Preparing for a shoot can take weeks of sketching and skin-testing. Her “live canvas” — the body — reacts unpredictably. Pressed objects must be timed precisely. Some marks vanish in minutes; others linger like ghosts.

She approaches the process not with martyrdom but with measured devotion.

My self-portraiture is in no way tied to my financial stability, photography is my great unconditional love.

– She says.

And in love, there is madness. There is magic. There is the unfathomable relief of being seen — not as flawless, but as real.

Beyond the Skin: Feminism, Fantasy, and Fragility

Rychlik’s art isn’t just autobiographical — it’s political. Her works interrogate beauty standards and the societal discomfort around women’s bodies, especially those that do not conform. Her aesthetic is a modern fairytale — not Disney’s glossed-over kind, but one inked by the Brothers Grimm and lit by candlelight.

Raised in a conservative Polish environment, Rychlik once concealed her condition. Now, she adorns it, accentuates it. The vulnerability she once feared has become her greatest source of power.

I used to hide my skin, now I draw on it.

– She admits.

This reclamation reverberates far beyond her lens. It’s a hymn for anyone who’s felt out of place in their own body. A reckoning. A relief.

A Room of Her Own: Building Creative Sanctuary

For all the anguish in her images, Rychlik’s process is grounded in joy. She surrounds herself with books, music, and peculiar treasures that ignite her imagination.

Her working environment is sacred.

I need my surroundings perfectly organised before unleashing any creative experiments (and mess).

– She notes.

And when the process exhausts her — as it often does — she finds solace in hot showers, skincare rituals, naps, and Florence + The Machine on vinyl.

There is no muse without maintenance.

What Lies Ahead: New Landscapes of Meaning

Looking to the horizon, Rychlik plans to explore themes of home and displacement — topics intimately tied to identity, memory, and body politics. As she continues to evolve her self-portraiture, expect her work to grow even more daring, layered, and emotionally complex.

With each frame, she continues to ask: What does it mean to inhabit a body that resists idealization? How can photography become an act of healing, even when the wounds remain?

And perhaps most poignantly: How can pain — unwanted, uninvited, unrelenting — be alchemized into something beautiful?

Iness Rychlik doesn’t offer easy answers. She offers evidence. Frame by frame. Flesh by flesh.