Artist and educator Janna Ireland (born 1985) often uses herself and her loved ones in personal and editorial work that explores family life. In recent years, Ireland’s practice expanded to include architectural photography.

In 2016, she was invited by architect Barbara Bestor, Executive Director of the Julius Shulman Institute in Los Angeles, to photograph structures in southern California designed by the African American architect Paul R. Williams. Unlike conventional architectural photographs that were intended to document every detail, Ireland’s shadowy photographs conjure a moody richness, inviting viewers to focus on unique architectural elements and how they may have been experienced.

In 2020, Ireland’s photographs were reproduced in a monograph titled, Regarding PaulR. Williams: A Photographer’s View, published by Angel City Press. The book was shortlisted for the 2020 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook award.

In 2021, Ireland was awarded a Peter E. Pool Research Fellowship by the Nevada Museum of Art to document Williams’ work in Nevada. Ireland was born in Philadelphia and currently resides in Los Angeles. She received an M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.F.A. from New York University. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and internationally, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the California African American Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Her photographs have been published in Aperture, The New Yorker, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times Magazine.