Archive | Photography
Photographer Ron Shoshani presents high-gloss Tel Aviv + Interview
Israeli photographer shows the world the first modern Jewish city in all its true beauty, revealing its landscape in aspects very different from traditional notions of Tel Aviv. (Also check out SDM’s profile of Ron Shashani by clicking here)
By Olga Lavi
Ron Shoshani is a professional photographer whose photographs appear regularly in the Israeli magazine Time Out Israel. Within a few minutes after the appearance of a new photograph, hundreds of “Likes” are recorded on Facebook.
The secret of his popularity is that Ron Shoshani does what no one did before him.
Ron grew up in a family where a lot of attention was paid to design. This contributed to the development of his interest in photography, especially in the tourist genre. At some point Ron noticed that there is a big difference between the way cities like New York, London and San Francisco are presented in glossy international magazines and the images representing Tel Aviv.
“It was really sad. On the one hand are glossy pictures of cities which, believe me, I have seen in reality and at close range, and they do not look as fantastic as in the magazines. But the sell is successful – tourists come from all over the world.
“And what about Israel? How do we look in the eyes of the world? Again and again, there are images of a market with oranges spilling all over, a couple of Hasidim with sidecurls, people with bronze skin on the beach, a soldier with a gun, the Wailing Wall – and that’s it. What, we have nothing more to show?
“Nowadays every self-respecting city is interested in tourism and has a portfolio of photos showing its potential and the beauty of its landscapes. Tel Aviv has as much to offer as those other cities, I’m absolutely sure.
“Current trends in photography can turn any place into “eye candy”, wrapped in brightly colored wrappers, and, in the case of Tel Aviv, underlining the dynamism and urban energy, the special magic for which the city is famous. And, most importantly, these photos create an irresistible desire to see the city and the country with one’s own eyes. To see the living miracle, to communicate with the city directly, not vicariously or virtually.
“I realized that my city deserves such a portfolio, deserves it as a modern developing city, endlessly interesting for tourists. A city of business and entertainment, the sea and nightlife, wonderful parks, fascinating museums, and diverse architecture.
“So I decided to make Tel Aviv high-gloss, worthy of attention and inspiring the urge to drop everything and come to know it personally. My motivation was particularly influenced by the publication of a ten-year city development plan, which involves dramatic changes in the shape of Tel Aviv. Therefore, the urgent need to capture the moment, the beauty of the city in which we live, here and now, before it grows into a small Bangkok, to capture it from above, unchanged, nostalgic and familial. ”
Shoshani began his project about two years ago, and it continues to gain momentum. It’s a process of revealing Tel Aviv’s landscape, its contours, in aspects very different from traditional notions of Tel Aviv, like the difference between walking along the street with your head down, or watching the city from the window of an airplane during takeoff or landing. Shoshani gives us a brief glimpse of the city from another dimension. He’s taking his time in photographing the Israeli metropolis: he not only wants to show a portrait of a modern city, but he also finds amazing camera angles, and the usual, familiar Tel Aviv buildings often look completely unrecognizable.
Shoshani has ambitious plans – he’s going to come back to the same places in ten or fifteen years to capture changes in the shape of the city. Dynamics of development are important to him; he captures them with his photographic eye, every shot conveying love and respect for Tel Aviv, intimate and very personal.
It’s hard to believe, but the richly colorful images do not go through much post-shooting treatment. “I’m doing an easy color correction, and the whole process is barely ten minutes per image,” says the author.
His special secret is dramatic lighting and natural phenomena, going to shoot very early in the morning or in the midst of a storm, returning time and again to the same point to capture his ideal image.
“I love my city. And I want to show it to those who have never been here, as well as to those who have lived here for years and have not seen all its matchless beauty. Once a girl from Thailand wrote me that, after viewing my pictures, she decided to come to Tel Aviv and see it with her own eyes. And what do you think? She arrived with her friends and they asked me to be their guide through the places they loved in my images… It was very touching, and in fact, this is the best affirmation of what I’m doing. ”
Source: MFA
Three Israelis make finals in Google+ photo competition
Dana Stirling, Sasha Tamarim and Adi Sason make top ten finalists group out of 20,000 student entries worldwide • Finalists’ photos to be displayed for a month in London’s prestigious Saatchi Gallery • Grand prize winner to be announced on April 24, the day before the gallery exhibit opens.
Three Israeli students have reached the finals in Google’s Photography Prize competition, beating out more than 20,000 students worldwide who entered the contest. The finalists’ work will be displayed at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery in London for a month-long exhibit beginning April 25. The grand prize winner will be announced on April 24.
The photo competition began about five months ago, with a deadline to submit photos by January 31. Students from around the world were invited to participate by sharing what they consider to be their best work with other Internet surfers worldwide through the Google+ platform. The international panel of seven judges narrowed down the competition to a top 100 shortlist, all of whom won a Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The top 10 finalists’ names were posted on Google’s blog shortly afterward.
The three Israelis among the top ten finalists are Dana Stirling, 22, from Ma’aleh Adumim, a third-year photography student at Hadassah College in Jerusalem; Sasha Tamarim, 25, a third-year student of photographic communications at Hadassah College who immigrated to Israel in 1995; and Adi Sason, 25, a student of photography and digital media at Sapir College of the Negev, who lives in student housing on Kibbutz Sa’ad.
“I found out about the Google competition through hearsay and through friends,” Stirling said. “I didn’t think I had a chance of winning because it is an international competition involving big names like Google and Saatchi. It’s like being a tiny grain of sand in the desert. But I submitted a project that very night that I had photographed during my second year of school. At the start of the project, I tried to recreate or resurrect childhood memories from places that I knew well. Slowly I understood that I wasn’t actually trying to recreate, but rather to create a reality that maybe existed but maybe didn’t. It is present in my personal memory anyway and I was expressing it through photography. I created new memories for myself and casted them onto my childhood; I don’t necessarily remember it.”
Tamarin said that he is very committed to the photographic medium, in which he has invested most of his time and energy in recent years. “I heard about the Google Photography Competition after receiving an invitation from the college. I appreciate this opportunity so much because we are having a tough time finding competitions that don’t require an entry fee or don’t judge work according to the number of social network recommendations one gets.”
Sason’s photographs are part of a broader project documenting nights on Kibbutz Sa’ad, a religious kibbutz located near the Gaza Strip. “Night after night, I wander through the serene pathways of the kibbutz, amazed at the contrast between the noise of daily life and the night’s silence. The silence assumes a central place, pushing other things aside and revealing a hidden life. Night photography adds a perspective and different significance to things. Time is meaningful, and slow shifts over time leave their mark.”
The Google Photography Prize competition is open to students over age 18 around the world who are currently studying in institutions of higher education. They can submit up to eight images in the format of a public Google+ profile. By uploading pictures to the profile, students became competitors; the photos are publicly available on Google+ here.
Source: Israel Hayom
VIDEO: Sexy Swimwear by Galit Levi: Photoshoot by Dvir Kachlon with Model Alisa Basyuk | FashionTV
ISRAEL – Model Alisa Basyuk wears a selection of striking and colorful bikinis and monokinis from Galit Levi swimwear as she’s photographed by photographer Dvir Kachlon by a pool in sky-high stilettos. Also getting her photo taken is the designer herself, Galit Levi, since it is her birthday.
Appearances: Galit Levi, Alisa Basyuk
VIDEO: DUMMY Photoshoot – Refael Eyal & Shirley Avigail Photoshoot by Guy Gilad | FashionTV
http://www.FashionTV.com/videos ISRAEL – Photographer Guy Gilad captures model Nasti Konen in this photoshoot titled “DUMMY,” featuring the stylish pieces of designer Shirley Avigail. Avigail showcased her Spring/Summer 2012 collection at the recent Tel Aviv Fashion Week.
Before the shoot, model Konen gets her hair done in a sleek high ponytail with retro curls. She wears dark red lips, chunky necklace, light blue blouse with ruffles tucked into a darker bodice and statement blue tights. Later, a form fitting glittery grey gown with embellishments at the collar and open back takes the place of the first outfit. The artistic photos are taken against the backdrop of a graffiti covered wall. A black coat and red gloves and an open white blouse with red tights are the final looks. Other brands featured in this clip include heels from Aldo and jewelry from Efrat Cassuto.
Photographer: Guy Gilad
Art Director: Refael Eyal
Model: Nasti Konen (De Ja Vu Models)
“A place of radical otherness” is what French photographer Frederic Brenner calls Israel
Among the goals Frederic Brenner had in initiating the ambitious photography project that has been documented on these pages was the desire to expose the participants ‘to a broad spectrum of narratives’ that tell the story of Israel.
“A place of radical otherness” is what French photographer Frederic Brenner calls Israel. For the past two and a half months, with his help, we have tried to convey in the pages of Haaretz some of that otherness – and a smidgeon of the radicalism. The unprecedentedly extensive collaboration between the global team of photographers that Brenner recruited and our weekend supplement was intended to provide not only the very first peek at a photography project that is generating interest across continents: The objective was also to enable us to use the sharp gaze of photographers from Korea to the United States to be able to retell, but in a different way, the Israeli story. And indeed, the same story that we bring each week on these pages looks different when those who deliver it are actually artists from outside.
This initial peek at the fruits of the artists’ labor over the past three years comes to an end this week with photos taken by Brenner himself. But work on “Shooting Israel” is naturally still far from finished: For Brenner, who is not only one of the participants in it but the moving force behind it, this is at most the beginning of the end. He has accompanied the process like a concerned father watching his child learning to walk.
A dozen photographers visited Israel in the past three years at his initiative. The last of them have yet to submit the very final photographs they took. Meanwhile, talks are proceeding regarding the first exhibition of the collected works, which will probably take place in Europe early in 2014. From there the exhibition will travel around America, Europe and Israel. All of this will be accompanied by a catalog and publication of a series of 12 books, one for each artist, which will wrap up the project.
Might we begin to sum up nonetheless? For the man who came up with the whole ambitious idea of a “group portrait” of Israel, the sheer notion of ending or stopping contradicts the spirit of the whole enterprise. “What I want is for that conversation to continue. That the participating artists will offer viewers open, generous pictures, of the sort that have enough room for the other. That everyone can begin his or her own journey.”
In other words, Brenner explains that he envisions the project as a means “to explore Israel as place and metaphor, to hold a mirror up to Israel, for holding a mirror to Israel is holding a mirror to the world.”
And you believe that art can do that?
THIS IS TEL AVIV: TLV through the lense of Israeli Photographer PINI SILUK
