Lili Almog
Lili Almog was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1961. She came to New York City and received a BFA with honors in photography in 1992 from the School of Visual Arts. She began with collages in the 1980’s and has evolved into photo based artist. Her most recent body of work is “The Other Half of the Sky” where she photographs and interviews women in modern China was produced in 2009. I am hoping to find out more when I pick a book of hers up.
I find myself attracted to her work in relation to a direction I may end up going. All of her work is informative, but in particular I find two collections have inspired me especially in reference to my concentration on earth-based women. “Bed Sequence”, produced in 2002, is the first body of work that caught my eye. In this series of photograph and film, Almog photographs and interviews women about their past, present, hope, rooms, etc. in their bedrooms. Their bedrooms are set up as a private stage on which the women can let go and tell their stories. The unscripted film reflects this freedom these women feel in their private space despite the intrusion of the photographer and camera. This work is directly related to her obsession with masks. Here she strives to remove the mask. “I've always dealt with portraiture, and with women through the ages, and with masks or facades. In this case, I just let the women present themselves as they wanted to be seen.” (Quoted in “In The Bedroom with Lili Almog” by A.D. Colemamn) I have often found myself intruding into other peoples’ private spaces from their homes to where they escape. I find you get a better picture of who a person is when they are in their own domain when their guard is down, and their outer mask is gone. You also get to a lot about a persons from how they’ve created their space. I am hoping to take time in my earth based women to go into my subjects home, places of practice, etc. and get to know them through their words and environments.
The second series of Almog’s work that interested in reference to my documentary of earth worshipping women is “The Perfect Intimacy”. Almog follows and photographs the nuns of Carmelite Orders in three locations capturing their lives, surroundings, and devotion. Through her still lives, portraits and candid shots that often read like paintings, she captures the daily lives of the nuns, but also the energy that the nuns, their possessions and their surrounding exude. Lyles Rexer states, “"Through stirring color and composition, Lili captures the celebration and even ecstasy of women who are in love with God," says Andrea Meislin. And, we might add, their dignity” (Quoted in “About the Cover” by Lyle Rexer) Both Almog and I are interested in women, and how their spirituality affects their lives although she seeks out a more extreme spirituality than I do. I also find that both of us include their surroundings and see the potential stories possessions can tell and therefore include them. Although her formal portraits are stiff in this series, the photographs of the everyday lives of these women and their surroundings capture the essence of faith that exudes from them. One of the things I would have included was more compositions with the nuns in prayer and practice, but I guess they were unnecessary because their faith and practice has such an influence on their everyday it is reflected enough.
· Artist Website -> http://www.lilialmog.com/New_Site/Home_Page.html
· Gallery Representing Lili Amog is the Andrea Meislin Gallery -> http://www.andreameislin.com/
· Interview Links
o “From A Women’s Prospective” by Robert A. Schaefer, Jr http://www.doubleexposure.com/Almog_Schaefer.shtml
o “Lili Almog Gets Herself to a Nunnery” by Eileen Torres http://www.thevillager.com/villager_168/inperfectintimacy.html
o “Bed Sequence” available at: http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/almog/index.htm
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