Assaf Shaham
Photographer Assaf Shaham disrupts the intended functions of images and technologies in order to show the limits of representation. Often he does not take photographs himself, but manipulates found images from archives, films, advertisements, postcards, etc, frequently removing them their original context or letting machines take control of the creative process. He explains, “My assumption is that every appliance, material, and mechanism predicts its user–so that the user is...already included in the instruction manual...By introducing disruptions into [this] manual, I suggest a way of rethinking its potential...”
Updating the photogram for the twenty-first century, Shaham is perhaps best known of his “scanograms,” camera-less images of abstract bands of light captured by facing two scanner beds towards one another so that each scans the other. Another work that employs a scanner is Writer/Storytellers (2015) where Shaham scanned, then cut into, the portraits from August Sander’s iconic book People of the 20th Century. By only leaving the the outlines of figures, Shaham undermines his predecessor’s goal to portray his subjects by profession or social class.
Shaham has had solo exhibitions at Tel Aviv Museum Of Art, Yossi Milo Gallery in New York and Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv. His work has been included …
Photographer Assaf Shaham disrupts the intended functions of images and technologies in order to show the limits of representation. Often he does not take photographs himself, but manipulates found images from archives, films, advertisements, postcards, etc, frequently removing them their original context or letting machines take control of the creative process. He explains, “My assumption is that every appliance, material, and mechanism predicts its user–so that the user is...already included in the instruction manual...By introducing disruptions into [this] manual, I suggest a way of rethinking its potential...”
Updating the photogram for the twenty-first century, Shaham is perhaps best known of his “scanograms,” camera-less images of abstract bands of light captured by facing two scanner beds towards one another so that each scans the other. Another work that employs a scanner is Writer/Storytellers (2015) where Shaham scanned, then cut into, the portraits from August Sander’s iconic book People of the 20th Century. By only leaving the the outlines of figures, Shaham undermines his predecessor’s goal to portray his subjects by profession or social class.
Shaham has had solo exhibitions at Tel Aviv Museum Of Art, Yossi Milo Gallery in New York and Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Shpilman Institute for Photography in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Petach Tikva Museum Of Art, Centro Cultural Clavijero in Morelia, and Judisches Museum in Vienna.
Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
