Dafna Tal

Multi-talented Israeli artist Dafna Tal manages to gain the trust of her subjects to enter their sacred world, using video, sound and photography installations to record personal and emotional moments, and bring to life her thought-provoking concepts.

Rich in detail and expressing a hyper-realistic edge, Dafna's multidisciplinary artworks explore emotional and mental perceptions and their relationship with outer reality, as expressed in various cultures and communities.

The project, titled Reaction, conducted in the heart of Jerusalem in 2016-17, was an inter-religious experiment in which Dafna recorded and presented the way people of various religious backgrounds reacted to the sounds of Christian, Muslim and Jewish prayer. "The participants were told that they would be filmed while listening to sounds, without knowing what these would be," Dafna explains.

"They sat alone in a dark studio facing a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and later a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera. In this environment, they listened to sounds of traditional religious prayers while they were filmed." Dafna transformed the resulting footage into a series of vertical 'video portraits' depicting the various recipients' reactions alongside an identical soundtrack. Reaction was exhibited at numerous venues around the world, including the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney, Australia.

"In my projects I try to get a better understanding of minds and feeling," Dafna says. "Using diverse approaches, in-situation experiments and defined processes, I examine different ways of connecting to my subjects' experience, and gain insight into their identity, self-reflected image, behaviour and prejudices."

More recently Dafna created a video installation entitled You're Gorgeous, You're Mad, where she filmed a group of international artists gathered in Virginia, USA. The final work presents an inner dialogue between two aspects of the participants' personality (or 'self-image'): the traits they appreciate about themselves, and those they would prefer to hide.

Dafna explored other creative disciplines, including theatre, sculpture, painting and music, before finding her way to photography in 2006, when she studied at New York's International Center of Photography (ICP). She followed this with a European Diploma in Cultural Project Management from the Association Marcel Hicter.

The Israeli artist has no doubt about what the future holds. "I wish to have more and more flow in the process of transforming my project ideas to reality," she says. "I want to keep experiencing creative expression and enjoy seeing the ideas that emerge in my mind become real."

You shoot landscapes and interiors too, but what is it about portraits that inspires you?

"I love exploring and finding incredible depth in the human mind and spirit. I am interested in the emotional and mental reactions that drive human behaviour, and the relation between a person's inner world and their outer reality."

What's been your career high point so far?

"The best moments for me are always in the process of creating new work, so every new project is for me a new pick. As for the process of sharing and exhibiting my work, my highlight is certainly when I was invited to put on a solo exhibition in one of the most important museums in the world: The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. What's more, Professor Piotrovsky, the museum's director, chose two of my artworks for the permanent collection."

What approach do you adopt when directing your subjects?

"In my artwork I try my best to connect with the real participants; understand them and let them be. For commercial, I simply try to be friendly and open to their suggestions, to give them freedom to express themselves."

Do you have a go-to shooting style?

"Every project has its unique visual or audio-visual language and requires specific lighting, framing, movement and sound that will best serve the theme and atmosphere. In that respect, the more one is able to use different lighting and techniques, the wider the 'colour palette' and freedom in expressing oneself."

You've exhibited across the world: what's your secret for putting on a good show?

"In my exhibitions and projects I try to create an experience rather than a direct message, and I try to bring up thoughts and questions more than answers."

One thing I know
Dafna Tal

"An interesting portrait requires an interesting person. Someone that has a deep and interesting look in his or her eyes will usually be able to convey this in a portrait photograph or video. It may be a challenge and a process to reveal this unique character, but this potential needs to be there in the first place in order to create an interesting portrait. Also, never give up on a project idea that burns inside you. Go for it and don't stop until you have reached the place you wanted to reach."

LinkedIn: il.linkedin.com/in/dafnatal
Website: www.dafnatal.com