• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Photography Culture

Igal Gofman: Street Photography in Jerusalem

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/13/2016
4 Mins read

20150514-20150514-DSC_1173

All images by Igal Gofman. Used with permission.

“My name is Igal Gofman. I was born in Russia in 1989 and in 2005 I moved to Israel. I served in the IDF as a helicopter technician in the Air Force and now I am studying politics and media in the college in Jerusalem.” he says in his introductory email to the Phoblographer. “Besides photography, I play blues harmonica.”

As you can tell, Igal lives a pretty awesome life. He first got into photography when he scored a Nikon digital camera at a young ago. For Igal, the most important part was always the picture, and not really the gear.

Perhaps this is why he really just works with minimal rangefinders.

Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography.

20160124-DSCF2595

Igal: In fact, it started almost by accident. In my school, I won the first prize at the lottery – a little Nikon camera (4 megapixels). Since then, I’ve had it and I had to use it, and I didn’t give too much importance to the camera itself. I just was documenting some events and experiences of my life, they have always been more important to me.

Phoblographer: What made you want to get into street photography?

20160121-DSCF2488

Igal: The fact that I was doing street photography, I learned only later. I noticed that the pictures that I do not look very nice. When I wondered why they not looks good, I began to study the materials about photography on the Internet, I was looking at the works of other photographers. It turned out that when I walk through the streets, meet different interesting people, watch funny scenes from the live of others – and by the way I document my visual experience with the camera – this is street photography.

Phoblographer: What photographers influenced you? What about their work inspired you?

20151202-DSCF7941

Igal: My first vivid impression – a film “War Photographer”. I was just shocked at what I saw. James Nachtwey – is, I think, a photographer who has predetermined from the beginning my journey in photography. Then I met Robert Frank’s work, as well as Garry Winogrand and Alex Webb. From Israeli photographers I want pick out Felix Lupa. His photographs have a very powerful message and an aesthetically beautiful form. I just like at them and compare his impressions of life in Israel with mine.

Phoblographer: What typically attracts you to a scene makes you want to photograph it? Is it the light? The people?

20151128-20150504-DSC_9906

Igal: Very interesting question! I still do not know the answer. Usually, I do the frame before being aware of why I did it. I just follow some inner urge to raise the camera to my eye and to press the button. Recently, I began to try to convey through pictures my personal attitude to what is happening around me. My personal impressions of what I saw, and my emotions that I went there, where i made a frame. I think, I always need to find a balance between what comes to me in the streets – whether it’s light or the people – and between what I personally bring to the streets. A successful mix of internal and external make the photo interesting, at least for me.

Phoblographer: Talk to us about the gear that you use and how it helps you to get the images that you want to have in the end product image?

20151108-DSCF6219

Igal: In the last year I have completely switched to rangefinders. Digital one it is a Fuji x100t and a film one – an old but beautiful Canonet QL19. I like their compactness and a huge, bright viewfinder. Viewfinder – the main thing why I love this cameras. It just gives me a wide way to see what is happening around me. Camera – this is just a tool. It must be simple and reliable. I don’t have something special that I can say about my gear. This is cameras that I have and I use them. That’s all.

Phoblographer: For you, what’s the end goal? Publishing a book? Being in a gallery?

20151025-20151025-DSCF5022

Igal: Last year, one of my pictures was at the exhibition. It was organized by Felix Lupa, which I mentioned above. It was very interesting, there were many other authors and I saw a lot of interesting photos. The exhibition was visited by thousands people, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that street photography is so much interested to them. People are positive about what we do and it motivates to deepen my exploration of the world around me. I do not think that photography has the end goal. The journey is more important than the results.

20150514-DSC_1172

20130212-_DSC5466

20121129-DSC_9331

20120919-DSC_6802

20111223-DSC_4424

20150611-DSC_3515

Igal Gofman street photography
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

First Impressions: Fujifilm X70

Next Post

John Kingston: The Psychology of a Lifestyle Portrait Photographer

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug