Michal Chelbin: Strangely Familiar

Alicia in a Golden Dress, Ukraine, 2005 © Michal Chelbin

Israeli artist Michal Chelbin just released her first monograph, Strangely Familiar: Acrobats, Athletes, and Other Traveling Troupes, which is available through Aperture. Her pictures are a mix of portraits of acrobats, ballroom dancers and contortionists from small towns in the Ukraine, Eastern Europe, England, and Israel.

In the book's introduction, Leah Ollman writes that in the photograph above (Alicia in a Golden Dress), “a self-possesed young woman in radiant gold displays her poise in a dancer’s turned-out stance. Like a showpiece, or a pet, she performs on command under the watchful eye of her grizzled father, who stands behind their equally battered car.”

Michal makes portraits of these performers out of context - they are not on stage, but in some other, less dramatic space. This technique allows the viewer to really examine her subjects as individuals, rather than performers. So in the photo above, we get to see Alicia perform for just us, instead of an entire audience.

© Michal Chelbin

In Michal's artist statement she writes, “My aim is to record a scene where there is a mixture of direct information and enigmas and in which there are visual contrasts between young and old, large and small, normal and abnormal. My playground lies between the private and the public, between fiction and documentary."

Two Athletes, Ukraine, 2006 © Michal Chelbin

She continues, "For me, the image is just the tip of the iceberg; it's the gate to a story waiting to be told and which I try to depict in an appealing yet troubling way. This story is about a life full of contradictions on the battle ground between fantasy and reality.”

© Michal Chelbin

Michal was one of the photographers chosen to be in PDN's 30 for 2008. PDN is a trade magazine for photographers, and every year they select 30 emerging photographers to watch. You can click through all of this year's selects here.

If you would like to see the photographs from Strangely Familiar in person, be sure to stop by Andrea Meislin Gallery for Michal's exhibition opening September 4, 2008.

Michal Chelbin Strangely Familiar
September 4 - October 18, 2008

Andrea Meislin Gallery
526 West 26th Street, Suite 214
New York, New York 10001

Gallery Hours
Tuesday through Saturday 10 am - 6 pm