Israeli photographer Michael Liani is known for making bold statements. He is unafraid of touching on subject matter that can elicit strong reactions in Israeli society – religion, gender, race, and tradition. His work has referenced the police force in a time of growing political unrest, and his ongoing project “LGBTQ+ Love” documents, among others, members of the Israeli armed forces who belong to the LGBTQ+ community, in a bid to reflect the multifaceted reality that some Israelis navigate. His unique perspective in exploring these themes challenges conventional norms and fosters a deeper exploration of contemporary Israeli identity.
Visually, Liani’s work is just as bold, featuring a vivid color palette and memorable compositions; his striking figures usually look directly at the camera, meeting the viewer’s gaze.
In contrast, Liani’s latest series holds a sense of fragility, a possible calm before the storm. Approaching this new body of work, Liani turned his focus away from the figures he usually documents, inward. Liani tells us the new series was born from a therapeutic place, one we all find ourselves seeking in the past months in the wake of the tragedies unfolding in Israeli and Palestinian societies.
His memorable figures are replaced with images from nature – a crashing wave, a single flower in a delicate still-life composition. Clean compositions and vivid colors give way to hazy lines and muted tones, or rendered in black and white. Shot on a manual Polaroid camera, the new pieces are meticulously scanned, enlarged, and presented as face-mounted prints, preserving the inherent beauty of Polaroid photography.
