Irina holds a degree in Economics and a master’s degree in History and Photojournalism. She focuses on long-term personal projects. Among the awards she has received are the Ian Parry Scholarship (The Sunday Times Magazine and Getty) in 2006, the Emerging Photographer Fund from Burn Magazine (Magnum Foundation) in 2012, the Sony World Photography Award for Portraits in 2012, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award in 2014, the World Press Photo Story for South America in 2022, the Sony World Photography Latin America Professional Award in 2022, and the UNICEF Photo of the Year in 2022. She was also a Pulitzer Grantee in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and named a National Geographic Explorer in 2022.