I am a psychologist.

As such, I am mainly interested in people, their emotions, and experiences;

especially their more dysphoric ones.

I try to capture how the human experience is expressed in people's faces.

 

As a psychologist, you are trained to wait patiently for the interlocutor,

until (s)he is willing to share his world with you;

and then aim to explore together,

his soul, as it is,

with its strengths and weaknesses,

without being offensive or defensive,

but with empathy.

I try to apply these skills when I take photos.

 

The writer Amos Oz once described the writer’s state of mind so:

“Like a gangster at a knife night,

but also, a bit like in a dream”.

This metaphor could just as well be applied to the attentiveness required of a therapist,

or of a street photographer at 'the arena':

Be very alert but maintain a certain level of floating.

 

I like Jerusalem, as a place where different people meet.

Sometimes, I don't like how they meet.

 

Sometimes I am asked:

Do your subjects know you are taking their photos?

 

My photos are never staged, and I don’t explicitly ask for permission to photograph.

Some people notice they are being photographed, but many do not.

Oftentimes, the place is crowded, and their attention is focused elsewhere.

I certainly prefer having eye contact with my subject.

By default, this is the 'decisive moment' for me.

 

The issue has moral aspects I cannot deny:

I suspect many subjects prefer that I not take their photos. They are traditional, religious, suspicious, etc. Yet, I do not ask for permission …

In my defense, I can only say this much:

My motives are good; I use the photos with as much dignity as I can.

Still, I feel I 'sin' in a sense.

 

 

Cameras are nowadays ubiquitous, it is almost impossible to avoid them, so many people have given up trying. This makes my life easier but eases my conscience only a bit.

 

In a few rare cases, especially in the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods

of Jerusalem, I had to leave a place quickly when people were shouting at me;

but this is the exception rather than the norm.

 

A Question I was asked:

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Thanks to your persistence, we see images that would otherwise go unnoticed.

I wonder what your motivation is.

Do you feel like the objective reporter with the courage of a front soldier?

The noble role of a truth-seeking eyewitness?

Alternatively, is it just curiosity? Social interest to the extreme, perhaps?

 

Most people shy away from confronting situations.

When I take candid photos, I always feel the adrenaline of a forbidden act, and my candid photos are innocent compared to yours.

 

Hats off, Yoram

 

My Answer:

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You may take your hat off, but I doubt if it is justified.

 

I tend to believe that people do not act on 'high values' or out of 'an obligation' alone,

rather because the action fulfills some emotional needs, it ‘scratches their itch’, so to speak.

The same applies to my photographic passion.

 

My emotional need is the deep curiosity about people whose lives I imagine being different from my own, conventionally western, modern, life.

Observing them always makes me wonder what my life would have been like if I were in their shoes.

 

Second, though I tend to camouflage it, I am a bit of an 'achiever' or 'perfectionist' -- I need to take the best photo I can in a situation, even if I would have to sell my soul to Lucifer to get it.

 

As a shy person, I tend to stand silently on the sideline (unlike many photographers I see, who freely use their elbows, and have no difficulty pushing their cameras in peoples' faces).

 

Taking candid photos does not come easy to me. Each time anew, it requires taking a deep breath and acting very fast. Still, the satisfaction of getting a good photo is powerful enough to overcome the shyness...

 

Lastly, sometimes, but only sometimes, I wait a second before taking the photo, giving the person a chance to signal whether they are willing to be photographed, and yielding me a photo with eye contact.

 

==

Besides all, or maybe: before all, for me, it's therapeutic to go for a shooting.

It enters me into a 'meditative state of mind':

I forget all the hopes and disappointments,

all the happy thoughts and anxious ones.

My depth of field is like the distance between the previous frame and the next one,

and any mood lasts in my mind no more than 1/60 second.

==

 

You might have heard the Hebrew term 'CHUTZPAH'.

Many Israelis like it or are proud of it.

I am not.

Yet, I assume you might call my photography an act of CHUTZPAH.

 

(I am 63 years old.)