Out of conflict.

ASSAF SHOSHAN: HOME

GALERIE POLARIS

PARIS

JUNE 2-JULY 12, 2007

The recent work of Israeli-born photographer Assaf Shoshan captures a personal and shared experience of citizens who live in a country teetering on the brink of war. Contrary to much documentary photography of the West that primarily captures its subject in even light, Shoshan frames his subjects in vast contrast, suggesting a variety of associations such as voyeurism, the baroque, and living clandestinely at night. While collectively addressing the concept of "home," these images highlight a reality that does not exist within most of the West.

Born in Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Egypt and Syria, Shoshan has long been confined by the threat of military conflict in the small town of Motza, located southwest of Jersualem. Although Israelis who live within Tel Aviv have stated in news reports that the condition of living under a prevailing threat is something many get used to, it has undoubtedly changed standard living patterns. The photograph Hertzelia (2005) depicts two blond women reclining on a beach at night, wearing black bathing suits. Even though one clutches an inflated beach ball, recognized as a symbol of free and spontaneous play, both women appear defensive and somewhat surprised by the photographer's flash. Thus, no matter how desensitized one becomes to the threat of violence, such fears and reactions persist nonetheless and continue to affect one's mode of life.

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Yael (No Lifeguard #4) (2004) also portrays the nude figure of a woman lying along a sandy beach at night. This piece initially could refer to the painting Olympia (1865) by Edouard Manet. Yet Shoshan's image disrupts the reference as it reveals an overall blur that obscures the subject, who successfully ignores the presence of both camera and cameraman--a reminder that Shoshan's work seeks to be independent of the art-versus-technique debate that has proliferated throughout the practice of American photography. Yet, in the use of the blur, the artist turns to a painterly effect. The plight for freedom experienced by women in Israeli society becomes neutralized by the young girl depicted in Lior (2002). Standing upon a rock in a black dress, stockings, and boots, this anonymous girl reflects a preparedness to run alongside that of a developing femininity. Set within a lush green wilderness beneath a gray sky, the subject appears very youthful but looks off to the right, possibly shifting in response to the camera's male gaze. While Shohan's images attempt to convince viewers that this is how life is in the Middle East, he only utilizes one or two sitters at once, rather than presenting a snapshot of a larger group of people.

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The subtle, Caravaggio-esque portraits give way to placeless landscapes. Haela Drive #4 (2004), for example, portrays a thicket of trees. Taken at dusk with minimal light shining upon the branches, there is no visual cue to reveal the orientation of the image. In Zikim (2004) the artist continues to transform the camera into a hidden eye that sees a deserted army camp in the distance. Untitled Negere Desert (2007) depicts a lone dog sitting behind a shrub, completely unaware of the photographer's proximity. The two industrial radio transmission towers that appear in Landmark (2007) signify a kind of monumentality that does not receive equivalent emphasis in the West where transistors, electrical towers, and broadband communications serve as an everyday standard. This photographer's isolation of the tall utilities, however, emphasizes the vulnerability of Israel's mass communication infrastructure that exists in proximity to several Arab states--and suggests a country that protects itself with extensive surveillance, leaving the role of the contemporary photographer there dubious.

JILL CONNER is an art critic based in New York City.