Biography
My name is Rei Dishon – I am an Artist - I add value and meaning to the things I do and create.
I am a young Israeli at the beginning of my journey as a professional fine art photographer and artist.
I use a camera to freeze aspects of my life and capture moments in time. I want to share my vision of reality with the wider world.
The camera is my tool to show people their own beauty and the beauty that surrounds them, a beauty that at times is intangible against the reality of daily life – a beauty easily taken for granted –especially in the fragile reality of Israel.
I find satisfaction through my work when my images spark a smile of understanding in the corner of one’s mouth, a question mark above one’s head, or a moment of self-recognition in one’s consciousness.
I strive to challenge naturalised perspectives and present a flash of inspiration.
I want people to think, feel, and see themselves and others in a new way.
Light is a great friend of mine, the “moment” a continuous chase, the Frame a constant reminder of my boundaries.
When I started studying photography, it was in a traditional way with black and white film.
I printed my own photos in a dark room, over and over again until they came out the way I wanted.
Through this process, I started setting my own guidelines and listening to my inner voice; “a frame is a frame” ... “you don’t make reality - you just show it.”
Through this process of self-development, I began to understand how our world and society has changed - for good and for bad.
Yes, we are in a digitalized era, and yes, there are new ways of creating images.
Nowadays, I do photograph with a digital camera and I use Photoshop to print my pictures the way I want. Yet I do not let Photoshop appropriate the skills I learnt in the darkroom, or substitute the processes at play in developing an image of reality.
It is important to me to stay loyal to myself and the integrity of the photographic tradition.
I explore the tension between making each image personal in this impersonal, global environment.
I further “personalize” my images through the use of text, so as to enhance the poetic without being didactic, to trace lines of understanding between the image, myself and my reality and to further engage the viewer’s own interpretation.
Through photography, I enter another dimension to allow my work to represent who I am.
I seek the positive, but learn from the negative, to maximise the absolute in light, to explore the perfect angle from which to capture the essence of the “moment” and to trust that the metaphor, the poetry and the understanding will follow.
I look at the world with a smile.
For three years, I served in the Israeli Defence Force. I was trained to shoot with a gun - to take life. Now, as a fine art photographer, I shoot with a camera. I want to give people life, and give them mine as well.
Yours truly,
Rei Dishon
