Text: Alex Wandersee and Martina Hošková; Photo: Shalev Man
Do you want to see your beauty? Shalev Man is the one you can turn to. A photographer who is able to see you as a golden person when others can’t, and even acknowledges the other side as but a part of the complete picture. Originally from Israel, his first logical step was to establish himself as a photographer in his home country. We talked to Man in Prague, his second home. Why did he fall for Czechia? And how does his creative mind work?
The process of the real beauty coming out
Capturing pretty images in real time requires minimal expertise, but capturing an image with a perceivable meaning is not so easy. Shalev Man is a photographer with many passions and pursuits, in which the leading influence of his work is finding one’s inner beauty, and using his expertise to exhibit that through thought- provoking and change-proliferating photographs.
“I emphasize the inner beauty because that’s the most beautiful thing that comes out in the picture,” Shalev Man revealed.
Man exhibited his most recent and prominent “WE ARE ALL GOLD” collection in London on 8th July 2023. The collection’s inspiration came from his time documenting Kabaret Total, a performance group in Israel. While documenting a performer whose role was to play a golden statue in the middle of a shopping mall, Man witnessed a great show of disrespect from the audience and passersby towards the gold-painted man, and it struck a chord with him.
“I felt like he’s a gold person who is not recognized as a gold person. It didn’t feel right,” Man observed. Gold is a pure metal, untarnishable, and valuable – the traits Man found synonymous with human life. This inspired him, and his project then became a series of attempts at portraying the value and goodness in humanity by painting a diverse group of models in gold. The golden makeup used both unified them in their equality and amplified their uniqueness.
“The idea was to connect. When we put the golden makeup on, something happened to them… It was like metamorphosis. It’s really hard to explain but it was amazing… There are differences between us and it’s cool, like the rainbow. We are all together, like a rainbow with all the colours. Just one colour is nice, but all of us together are amazing,” Man commented, describing the transcendent effects of the project.
While the portrayal of human goodness was achieved, Man realised it was not a realistic representation because all people have flaws; all people have a dark side. To complete his project, he created the inverse – “destroying” the original images – by creating negatives, and then negatives over the negatives. The collection’s lengthy development added a whole new dimension of meaning to the message.
“One side is what we aspire to be: the gold. The other side, it’s not the bad, but it is the other side in all of us, or in humanity. Showing both of them together, one side and the other side, is complete. It’s the Yin and the Yang,” Man said, describing the final result.
Do you long for a change? Travel!
Originally from Israel, Man perceives his home country’s success and flourishment amid the various crises as astonishing. However, growing up in a war-torn country also instilled in him a desire to seek out and fight for the freedom of others. Finding a balance between respecting one’s cultural and religious values and defending their human rights within these parameters is a continuous mission for Man. These aspirations are a driving factor in all his pursuits, both commercial and artistic. There is good and beauty to be found in everyone, and his life experience has motivated him to bring this to light.
Man found his passion for photography at age sixteen, and developed his skills through trial and error. Although photography was always a passion, it began as a hobby rather than a career. Man began as an account and project manager in telecommunications. His career progressed quickly in this field, and left him feeling a sense of anxiety at its pace and trajectory.
Man’s passion for photography coincided with a love for cars and motorcycles. With this in mind, he and his wife decided to take a break from the corporate world and spend a year road- quest through India via motorcycle.
Their time spent traveling and documenting revealed a whole new world to Man, and unveiled a new career path in photography. Prague was the next stop on his journey, but not yet a permanent destination. His initial arrival in Prague was discouraging, having faced many cultural challenges and language barriers. Deciding to return to Israel, Man created a business and marketing strategy to build his new career and portfolio as a photographer, still keeping Prague in mind. “It took about five years after establishing myself in Israel as a photographer, where I got to photograph many well-known people, significant events, and do lots of stuff…
I thought it was a good time to try and make the leap again,” Man revealed about his time spent preparing for his return to Prague, which finally took place in 2014.
When asked, why Prague? Man simply answered: “the freedom and the openness really attracted me… I think it’s one of the most free countries in the world. It’s live and let live. There is freedom.”
Smart art honours technology
Man will be exhibiting one of his images from the WE ARE ALL GOLD collection on 20th September 2023 for eight days at Zari in London for a content contest. Additionally, Man has a new project in the works inspired by modern technological advancement. Utilizing new technology and AI rather than vilifying it is important to his artistic innovation and intention.
“I am creating a technological tool that helps people to refine their photography in real time, to get a good result that doesn’t miss the moment, and in addition saves time and storage,” Man revealed, alluding to his new project.
So, who is Shalev Man?
He is a photographer, a businessman, and a human being who feels called upon to use his expertise to bring out one’s inner beauty and fight for the freedom that all humanity is owed.
“I have a tool and I have the ability to show people, ‘yeah, you‘re beautiful, you’re amazing.’”