My name is Gilad Bar-Shalev. I am an independent photographer specializing in commercial photography and documentary portraiture. Over the past decade, I have also been engaged in street photography. I set out on this journey inspired by the tradition of mid-20th-century American documentary photography, which sought to comprehend society through everyday encounters—direct, non-hierarchical, and unmediated.

The idea of the journey or the roadtrip is a central motif in my street photography. Yet, over time, I realized that I mostly photograph people rather than places. I choose to photograph individuals in a direct, centered, and recurring composition. For me, this represents a condition of equality: regardless of background, identity, or socioeconomic status, everyone is photographed in the same manner.

My subjects are people I encounter while wandering through the public space. The camera allows me to pause, observe, and sometimes converse with people who are not part of my everyday life. The interplay of light, style, and clothing usually guides my decision whether to photograph.

In this gallery you can see three bodies of work I’ve photographed at three different locations in Israel: South Tel Aviv, Tekoa, and Ashdod. The latter series was created specifically for this exhibition. The time spent in the city and my encounters with its residents sharpened a sense of Ashdod as a microcosm of Israeli society—a convergence of sectors and communities, long-time residents and new immigrants, religious and secular populations. Observing these different places permits distinct encounters with people and space; together, they form a continuum of portraits that seeks to reflect Israeli society through faces, bodies, and attire.