My on going photography-travel- project ‘Intimacy Under the Wires’ is now featured in May issue of Shamenet Magazine in Israel. This project has been quite popular and been featured on some Travel and Photography blogs for the last couple of months, but this is actually the second time it is on print and the first time it is featured in Hebrew.
My Israeli friends already know how to spot laundry-hanging-out-on-wires for me. They already know which path and road to choose so I can have a great visibility of hanging clothes. They are patient enough to stop when I’m stopping all of a sudden, pulling my camera out of my bag and standing under the wires, waiting for a breeze and a windy wave to come by and animate the clothes. Some of them even pull out their iPhone cameras and take pictures of me taking pictures of laundry. (one day I should have a post only with those pictures). Some of them parting from me, giving me my time, my space and make plans to meet me later. In all occasions, there is always a picture to take.
Tel Aviv is filled with opportunities to take pictures of laundry. The warm weather makes it easier on those who want their laundry to get dry faster. Lots of old crumbling terraces that serve as a great background, air conditioners backs peeping out of the windows and electricity wires sliding down. Here are some images from my recent visit in Tel Aviv.
My Laundry project started with one image. (above) I was walking in the quiet alleys of Jaffa on a Friday afternoon. It was two years ago, when I came for a Holiday visit on April. I love Fridays in Tel Aviv. It has a special atmosphere you don’t have anywhere in the World. The city slows down bit by bit, getting ready for the Shabat (Saturday, a day of relaxation). There is less traffic on the roads, public transportation disappears, people drink their coffees in the neighborhood cafes, gathering the Weekend’s newspapers under their arms, getting ready to have a nap after a long week of work. Tel Aviv’s beach is slowly getting empty from visitors and the sun has its own rhythm.
I was in Jaffa, waiting for a friend to join me for a shoot when I’ve heard a woman’s voice over my head. I lifted my head up and saw her hanging laundry. I waited for her to finish and then a breeze came and gave life and animated the laundry. Someone once told me that these images look like color marks in water. I couldn’t agree more.
Since then, ‘Intimacy under the Wires‘ project has become very popular. And in every visit to Israel, I keep coming back to these quiet alleys of Jaffa, the mixed city of Arabs and Jews, looking up the crumbling balconies to find laundry.
Just in time for Spring Season, the Fashion Magazine Marie Claire ITALIA is featuring my ongoing photography project ‘Intimacy under the Wires’. See the latest April Spring Issue.
For me, it is just another reason to go back to Italy and revisit….
It is not that difficult to find laundry in Vietnam. It is everywhere! In fact, I’m not sure if there are dryers in Vietnam (in other words, I’m quite sure there are not). The Vietnamese hang their clothes out to dry in every window or balcony of their home, and sometimes, they just open a window to let the wind dry the clothes in doors. In Hanoi, for example, the Vietnamese hang their flags outside the windows and sometimes the National flag seems like part of the laundry itself. In all places though, laundry (and a lot of laundry) could be seen in all parts of the day and sometimes I just had to walk inside an alley into a small court in between the houses to find the clotheslines. In most cases, the Vietnamese women who were either hanging the laundry or cooking/selling food outdoors, didn’t really understand why I take pictures of some clothes on a wire.
I am so excited that my on going photography project ‘Intimacy under the Wires’ is now featured on Design Sponge. This is one of my favorite blogs about almost everything and Grace Bonney is so inspiring. A big thanks to Anne Ditmeyer from Prêt-à-Voyager who forwarded my website to the *Sponges.
To read the full article, click here
Venice is a laundry Heaven. I haven’t been to Burano (yet) but 8 and a half hours in Venice were packed with sights of laundry’s clotheslines hanging out from almost every window. The warm weather at the end of September was perfect for the clothes to dry. Some people were peeping out the windows, looking at me suspiciously, some closed the windows or hid behind the shutters. Overall, I found myself looking up, searching for clotheslines and colorful clothes to dry.
It is not so hard to locate and find laundry in Florence. I was staying in Via del Campuccio street in Florence, a walking distance from all the places to see and visit in Florence. I must say that a friend of mine, who visited Florence a week before, told me he hardly if ever saw laundry hung outside the windows. Boy, he was wrong. Laundry is almost in every window. I didn’t come across clotheslines reached across buildings or hung over alleys, as I saw in Venice, but laundry could be easily seen. The combination of the yellow colored brick walls with the green shutters and the vivid colors of the clothes, made it all so unique and beautiful. A celebration to the eyes.
