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Travel

Few thoughts before my birthday

June 5, 2012

One of my closest friends tends to measure her Birthday and the year that passed by the number of places she has visited and the number of people she fell in love with. In other words, a good year for her will be a year well travelled (to some new destinations) and a year she has experienced love or fell in love at least once. When she shared with me this information, I smiled and paused for a second but just because I had to think about her great idea and evaluate my past year according to her standards; Love and new destinations.

Looking back at where I was and what I did and how I celebrated my previous Birthday and having a check point to where I am at now (few days before my birthday) I must admit I have covered quite much of the plan. Yes, I’ve been traveling quite a lot for work or to catch up with family and friends and I met some interesting people.

Last year on my Birthday I packed my camera bag and another Gemini friend (Sharyn) and we went to Nassau, the Bahamas. We both wanted to escape New York for a while. We didn’t want to deal with velvet ropes or high priced drinks as we did in previous years on our Birthdays. Obviously the Bahamas was a great escape, even though I experienced a semi-Tornado storm on the day of my Birthday for the first time in my life.

On the day of our Birthdays we both wrote our goals for the next coming year (sort of a habit we keep). I think Sharyn wrote hers on a piece of paper and shoved it in a beer bottle and then she threw it to the water. I wrote mine on the back of a Murakami’s book I was reading back then. Whereas I am not sure how much did Sharyn complete her list, I think I covered almost 60% of mine.

*sigh*

It has been an exciting year for sure, and even though 60% of my goals were covered, I’ve managed to achieve some extra new ones I didn’t plan before;

I have traveled to some new destinations and came across different and various cultures. I made some new friends. I might even lost some. I tasted new kinds of food I would never imagine I try, not to mention where I found it. I learned how to translate my thoughts and ideas into pictures and words. I struggled with lighting equipment. I started to like negative space. I met and photographed famous people. I got nervous before doing that. I tried to decide what should be in focus. I took blurry pictures. I probably bad worded something up. I got confused more than once because of a guy. I considered getting off facebook few times. I finally gave in to Twitter. I found my name printed in some global websites and magazines. That was exciting! I got impatient so many times. I fell few times while running. I tried to be courageous. I talked to myself while taking the Subway. I took a 24 hour flight (almost non stop). I took a night train all the way from Hanoi to Sapa just to realize there was too much fog for a shoot. I took the midnight train back at the same day. I left my camera bag in the middle of a Starbucks in Tokyo. I watched a lot of French movies. I searched mostly for natural light. I took pictures of the interiors of other peoples homes and actually kind of liked it. I had some second thoughts regarding my unconventional life. I tried to forgive and forget. I had days based on coffee and dark chocolate. I tend to say YES to opportunities that came across and I freaked out when time was moving too fast.

And even though I feel I was quite slow paced the last couple of months, I can’t wait for the new ones to come.

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My Life in Polaroids

on the table: Pausa caffè a Venezia

October 20, 2011

Surely, there is nothing better than a good Italian coffee, not to mention when you drink it in Italy. And from all cities in Italy, when you drink it in Venice. I was in Venice only for 8 and a half hours, but they were intensive photography hours, while I was walking among the narrow colorful streets and alleys with my Italian Photographer friend, Peter.

I was on a hunt for some good Laundry shots for an on going photography project I am doing “Intimacy under the Wires” and Peter was on a hunt for a good coffee. We have just discovered a magical store that sells hand-made masks and right next to it there was a small cafe that serves short espresso. It was the perfect break for the day and the best ‘fuel’ (beside dark chocolate) to continue taking pictures.

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My Life in Polaroids

8½ in Venice

September 26, 2011

One solo Espresso in the middle of the day, followed by a chocolate ice cream. crowded Piazza San Marco with thousands of tourists and thousands of doves. walking along the colorful streets and hopping the old balconies will not crumble and fall. St. Marks Basilica, watching the people going for a Sunday Mass, watching the people coming out of a Sunday Mass. Lunch outdoors, the sound of rattling plates and glasses. Ponte dei Sospiri, 4 hand made postcards printed on a fine art paper. Visiting a hand made mask store and having a hard time to leave. Cafe Florian, alla carrettiera Pasta, Formaggio di pecora o capra a pasta pressato, Provola Capizzi and Ricotta Romana. Taking the Gondola instead of a Subway, The Grand Canal instead of the Grand Central in New York. watching the preparations to the Venice Biennale and thinking about the Carnival on February. Walking a lot along the streets and never going back to the same place. Having a photographer friend as a private tour guide, taking so many colorful laundry shots in so many angles and directions, watching the sun goes down and the gold reflection on the water, just before we leave the city. doing all of this for only 81/2 hours in Venice…and still feel there is so much to do and see….Priceless!

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Intimacy Under the Wires

Laundry Heaven in Venice, Italy

September 25, 2011

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.

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Picture is worth a 1000 Words

A picture is worth a 1000 words

September 25, 2011

“…Life is a carnival, you need to go on all the rides..”

Venice, Italy September 2011

I’ve spent only few hours in Venice and yet, manage to shoot so much in such a short time.

It seems that almost every other store in Venice sells these special masks and costumes for the well known Carnival of Venice, but CaDel Sol is one of the biggest one with a great variety. Stepping into this store is like stepping into a candy shop when you are five years old and you don’t know what to look for at first, and you don’t know what to choose. It really made me curious more about the Carnival. I haven’t been yet to a Venetian Carnival but this is definitely something on my ‘to do’ list one day.

And yes, Life is a Carnival. Not necessarily a Venetian one. And if we do tend to see our Life that way, so be better need to go on all the rides and not forget to enjoy them.

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Window or Aisle?

Intimacy under the Wires; How it all started

May 7, 2011

Like a lot of things in life, this photography project started with a random image. Like a lot of times in life, sometimes you have to get away from a place in order to rediscover it. These two sentences basically initiated my on-going photography project called “Intimacy Under the Wires.”

As a street photographer based in New York City, I hardly (if ever) come across the sight of laundry hung outside windows to get dry. It was a very common thing for me to see, however, when I grew up in Israel.

I was on a holiday visit to Israel on April 2010 when it all started.

I made plans to meet a friend at the flea market in old Jaffa and he was late. While waiting for him, I wandered the quiet back streets of this old and vivid neighborhood, when a woman’s voice from an upper floor caught my attention. I looked up and saw her hanging her laundry outside the balcony. For some, it may be an ordinary chore, but I haven’t seen that since I moved to Manhattan 10 years ago. I stayed there, standing in the street under the crumbling balcony, and observed her. Few minutes after she hung her clothes, a warm breeze from the sea came by and animated them.

I just had to take a picture!

After Tel Aviv, I had a stop in London for few days, and then there was the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, so I got stuck for a week there. I used the time to walk in the streets of London and take a lot of pictures. I was in Brixton, London, when I took this image, which is one of my favorites.

I think this image made me wonder about the people who wear these clothes. I really wanted to know more about them. What they do for a living? How do they look? But mostly wanted to know about their character. So I think this image really made me think further.

From looking at someone’s laundry we can tell so much about them and their families without even meeting them. Some have all work shirts, some party dresses, some uniforms, children’s clothes, tank tops, t-shirts, sexy lingerie and so on.

Laundry is something so personal and private yet so public. Looking at laundry seems so mundane, yet when you delve into it, you realize laundry tells of people’s intimate lives. They hang their sheets, their night clothes, even their underwear for all to see. We would never expose these personal things if we were actually in them, would we?

This project, which was named by Phaidon “Intimacy Under the Wires,” is not just about laundry.

It is about the differences among the cultures, the places and the people who wear these clothes. I love traveling to different places, taking portraits of city streets and their dynamics. I often say that I don’t take people’s portraits but cities’. Since that afternoon in Israel, I am drawn to images of laundry.

In every city there is that area, usually in old neighborhoods, where laundry is hung up outdoors. It amazes me to see how laundry is similar in different countries and cultures and yet so different. When I take a picture of laundry I always make sure to relate it to its location. Whether it’s a street sign, a building, a window, I am also interested in the texture and colors of the buildings where the laundry is out to dry.

Another layer hidden or not hidden in this project, beside intimacy, is our urge toward voyeurism. We are all voyeurs. Photographers maybe more than others.

When I shoot these images, I am standing under the laundry wires and waiting for the right moment, when a breeze passes by and brings life, energy and rhythm to the clothes. I find laundry very intimate and sexy, and when I shoot, the act of looking up, is like the feeling of being under someone, unseen, a voyeur, a spy, like sitting under the boardwalk at the beach and watching people walk by, unaware. And this is actually what we photographers mostly do: spy with our cameras and tell stories with the images.

“Intimacy Under the Wires” is an on-going project. It has been featured in the following blogs: Phaidon, Design Sponge, Design Milk, Feature Shoot, Trend Hunter, aCurator