Artworks & Installations

When photographing reproductions of paintings, I have never worked “by the book,” with illumination from two sides, which flattens the surface of the painting. For me, a good reproduction encompasses a delicate balance between the drama on the textured surface of the canvas and the paint, and the general appearance of the painting as two-dimensional. Each painting calls for its own particular type and placement of lighting.

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The first time in my life that I photographed a commercial work – and was paid for it – I took a photograph of ceramic sculptures created by Mark Yudell at the Horace Richter Gallery in the city of Jaffa. I was in my early twenties, full of passion and a not-inconsiderable amount of knowledge. The encounter and dialogue with the artist are the key to the way that I photograph the works, even if the commissioning body is a museum. When my aim is to convey the essence of a sculpture in one frame, from a single perspective, I have to capture its essentiality in such a way that the viewer of the two-dimensional photograph will experience the entirety of the sculpture, including the parts of it that are concealed from the camera lens.

From the 1980s until the end of the millennium I used mostly large-format slides for my photography. Photoshop didn’t exist yet, and the tiniest color deviation had to be fixed when the photograph was being taken and developed. With the advent of digital photography, I bought a medium format camera with a digital back, which enabled the transfer of details and colors at various levels of quality that exceeded those of the most professional Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera. A closed system of color calibration allows me to export files with precise colors for printing or the screen.

Over the years I photographed catalogues for exhibitions held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Israel Museum, the Bat Yam Museum of Art, and others. I photographed installations, reproductions and sculpture for dozens of young and veteran artists. Although I chose to leave the realm of product and promotional photography, I still provide stills and video of the works of artists, because that is where my expertise and my heart converge with joy.