This is an Israeli beach where women are only welcome three days a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. On other days the beach is reserved to men. These beaches north of Tel Aviv see crowds of orthodox women and their children, in bonnets and bare feet, taking advantage of an authorized swim. The adults wear long dark clothing, and the children, too, except a few in bathing suits. The only colors are to be found in their accessories, which bring a vitality to these contrasting photographs, somewhere between cultural tradition and modernity.
In this series, the Israeli photographer Michal Ronnen Safdie look at this little known practice. She approaches the beach with a critical eye, as when a man’s presence visibly disturbs the children. We see above all simple moments, women relaxing, taking in the sun, their children splashing about in the surf and sand. Occupying their small, allotted portion of the beach, these women nonetheless appear occasionally troubled, although it might be due to photographer’s choices. Her balanced compositions adhere scrupulously to the rules of photojournalism.
Although the majority of the images display cool tones, Michal Ronnen Safdie is an equally adept handler of humor, as when she shows us a woman drifting in an orange inner tube, her dress swollen by the tide. Between effervescence and appeasement, this series emits a strange atmosphere, inciting the spectator to become a guardian of the event. It offers a glimpse of a cultural practice in a country we usually see through different kinds of images, . With precision and sensitivity, Michal Ronnen Safdie offers an engaging portrait of Israel, never losing sight of its unforgivable chauvinism.
Jonas Cuénin
Michal Ronnen Safdie, Sunday Tuesday Thursday
Through April 21, 2012
Andrea Meislin Gallery
526 West 26th Street, Suite 214
New York, NY 10001
Telephone 212.627.2552
