This is the Middle East!

Featuring Asaf Einy Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski

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Predominantly focusing on the male figure, Asaf Einy explores identity and the essence behind being an Israeli man with Oriental roots living in the Middle East. Discovering masculinity through the subjects (both models and non-models), Asaf strives to add sense to the complicated social and political reality. Through the prism of a photograph, the realization is of the surroundings inclusive of his own identity.

Asaf replies about his experience as a teenager, “What retrospectively, I see as queer photography, at the time, was an essential need to research my identity.” Through his genuine curiosity about the characters in his images, Asaf successfully composes new narratives for fashion and personal projects. Research of what lies beyond finding the authentic self by exploring the different facets of identity is an ongoing quest.

Asaf Einy is a Tel-Aviv-based fashion photographer and artist, born in Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Southern part of Israel. He graduated with a BFA from Bezalel, Academy of Arts And Design in Jerusalem. In 2018, Asaf self-published his 84-pages book ‘10pm Sunset’ in an edition of 250 copies. In this interview, we start the conversation with Asaf speaking about his roots and his first steps into the sphere of fashion photography. We move to the experience of studying at Bezalel when he was experimenting with video. Lastly, Asaf explains how both mediums of video and photography became the main formats he uses interchangeably in his work.

‘By the age of 10, my parents got me a video camera, so I started writing scripts and directing them with my friends at home. I was a very creative and ambitious child.’

I Am

Hey Asaf, nice to have you in our magazine! How are you doing?

Let’s start with the basics. Could you tell about yourself and how you got into photography? And a classical question about the heterogeneous society in Israel, where did your parents or grandparents come from? 

Hi, thanks for having me, it's my pleasure (:

I am 34 years old. I was born in Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the desert; I currently live in Tel Aviv. My parents were born in Israel, while my grandparents came to Israel from Morocco, Egypt, and Iraq. Since I was a kid, my dad took our photos on his Canon (which later became my first film camera). By the age of 10, my parents got me a video camera, so I started writing scripts and directing them with my friends at home. I was a very creative and ambitious child. I tried to apply things that I saw on TV with the equipment I had at home. In general, I've been obsessed with cameras ever since I remember myself.

I entered the fashion industry at the age of 21 via an agency that represented photographers. I worked with them for about a year. Later I started working on different projects and I was shooting editorials for local magazines, luckily there were a lot of team members and pretty big designers, way more experienced than I was back then, who took me with them and eventually that opened more doors. Today, people start working at a young age, and it seems logical, but at the time, I was considered to be like a baby to the photographers in the industry. Things developed for me, literally, by word of mouth, there was no Instagram to run the business or at least show your works.

‘Curiosity is the key. It’s a characteristic usually connected to children. When I am intrigued, I research and play with the circumstances.’

The Male Gaze

The predominant topic in your work is the representation of male characters while researching their traits and appearance in an authentic surrounding. How do you usually work with models compared to non-models on set in terms of the direction and the atmosphere you create? 

I don’t have a different way of working with models compared to non-models. In the end, what I put most emphasis on is self-development and staying curious. Curiosity is the key. It’s a characteristic usually connected to children. When I am intrigued, I research and play with the circumstances. It becomes easier for me to see how the photographic situation can guide me to interesting places, and I think it also results in good images. 

Whether working with models or non-models, I try to create a relaxed atmosphere as much as possible, and even more so, my goal is to make sure that the subject trusts me. For models,the situation is more comfortable as being photographed is not a foreign thing for them; with non-models, you need to practice a certain delicacy because they may not understand the idea of being photographed.

‘Bezalel is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, when you are located on this mountain in Jerusalem, and you constantly have to think about what, how, and why you want to create, and it was a great exercise that I learned a lot from.’

Bezalel

You graduated with a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the school that is highly respected among artists. What was the main contribution of this education in the direction you decided to choose or the network of people you became a part of? 

First of all, Bezalel is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, when you are located on this mountain in Jerusalem, and you constantly have to think about what, how, and why you want to create, and it was a great exercise that I learned a lot from. I understand much better my creative practice today, and I know how to develop it through dialogue.

At Bezalel, I wasn't working on photography at all — I used other mediums, especially video. This move away from photography during those years actually deepened my understanding of photography because I could think and talk about it in a critical way. This is something I didn't know how to do before my studies. Moreover, the choice to work with film also came straight after graduation as part of the same reasoning. As a kid, I used to shoot on 35 mm all the time, but I stopped when I started shooting fashion, and after Bezalel, it felt the best thing to get back to it.

It helped me understand that photography is an infinite timeline and is completely dynamic. It constantly changes and projects on itself. A frame that I shot years ago and was of zero importance at the time today can take a new meaning within this new context. The game with the archives is endless and it's fun, it's like an extension of yourself.

‘There has always been an element of a display of masculinity. What retrospectively, I see as queer photography, at the time, was an essential need to research my identity.’

Culture

In some of the editorials, you return to the topic of culture and relationship as with Vertex, Acre, Notion, while with others, you go deep into a research of one person also within the cultural context as with Elad or Muhammad. What are some of the questions that preoccupy you from the visual and personal perspectives with the Israeli/Arab identity representation in your work? 

This is a great question, which I continue to ask myself. Photography, at its core, deals a lot with questions about representation and identity. When I was a teenager, I would photograph myself a lot as a part of the growing-up experience and discovering my body. There has always been an element of a display of masculinity. What retrospectively, I see as queer photography, at the time, was an essential need to research my identity. As an Israeli-Oriental gay man living in a country where there is an occupation, I can't help but ask myself questions about identity. It's difficult to comprehend what's going on here, so at least the camera allows for some mediation between chaos and mind. 

I don't really know how to deal with those questions. I try, cautiously, I have to say, to photograph what I manage to absorb and contain: the more tangible things, the more visible, the way one is perceived through clothes, facial features, and body language. I am very interested in the kind of energy that's inside a body that wanders here — the Mediterranean man, and the relationship that is created or can be created in the frame portraying a bunch of men. Overall, there is a really enormous ethnic mix here alongside the prominent identities of an Israeli / Arab man. I think that "the real" identity of people I photographed isn't always important. What matters most is that the viewer won't make a mistake thinking the images were shot in some northern country (:  This is the Middle East!

Video

In what way, your approach to video projects as a director and writer differ from the preparation to photographic personal or commercial projects? Are you planning to continue working on video formats? 

I rarely go out with a small video camera and shoot spontaneously. Most often, I don’t think of video as a light medium. IIn my opinion, video requires a lot more planning, equipment, and staff. So I tend to approach this format after a lot of preparation and work on the concept. The opposite is with a still camera, I pick it up without thinking twice, and sometimes my attitude is — "whatever comes out - comes out."

With both video art and short feature films I created, the starting point for me was always connected to someone I met in reality and was intrigued about them or their occupation. The combination of documentary footage guides my work. There is something very beautiful precisely in between documentary and the staged — it's a meeting point of my experience as a photographer and of the subjects’ experience. When I was working on ‘You are not worthy’ (2016), a sound project, eventually, I cast people who were themselves and recreated actions from their lives.

‘With both video art and short feature films I created, the starting point for me was always connected to someone I met in reality and was intrigued about them or their occupation.’

Next Steps

What project are you working on or planning as the next one?

The truth is I am currently working on two new video projects. One will be more artistic, and the other more documentary. And at the same time, I'm in the first stages of working on my second photo book.