Oren Hasson: My Pictorial Swift CV
Light Upon A Time – My Photographic Art
Photography is about time no less than it is about light.
Cameras slice time onto a visual platform. Each slice is made of a predetermined time interval. Often, these times intervals are no longer than a tiny fraction of a second, but sometimes they are extended to minutes or even hours in long exposures photography. These slices may be kept forever for people to remember. Nostalgia goes so well with photography because we use these preserved slices of time, photographs, to refresh or rebuilt memories of important moments. Our brain then takes these visual memories, and use them to build meaningful stories.
Photographs slow down memory shifts by keeping certain visual slices of time intact. In effect, they constrain interpretation alterations. When anchored at family albums, memories either revert to previous interpretations, or our minds takes the effort to make a new sense of them (i.e., a new story) by reconstructing life determining moments in and around these photographs. Photo Therapy is built upon such processes.
Sliding Along The Fourth Dimension
When I shoot a photograph or create an image, the fourth dimension, Time, is always on my mind. I always keep asking:
- Is this a true representation of reality?
- What would happen to a photograph if I altered its fourth dimension?
- Will my interpretation of space in time via my choice of photography method, of whatever that was seen or COULD have been seen through time, make sense to others?
- Does any of these matter?
As reality, in my mind, is a tricky business, certainly when related to photography, I put no less weight on the fact that I use photography to tell a story, namely, my interpretation of reality.
The Galleries
I have condensed my photographs, like droplets in a cloud, into galleries. Many of my photographs were taken on the fly, with no particular goal in mind other than expressing what I saw and sensed. Over years of photography, however, I connected and linked my photographs to threads of ideas and interpretations that I have been followed up whenever opportunities came up. Most galleries were built this way.
Other images were created on an assignment with certain intentional creative, ideological or emotional goals in mind. The longest project I did was a seven years project of photographing the eight Israeli oncocyclus irises in their natural habitats. By combining photographs with writing, my gallery Iris to Iris expresses my deep concern regarding the ecological fragility of these endemic and endangered flowers, and my emotional reaction to their incredible beauty and vulnerability. This project will turn into a book.
The gallery Wrinkles in Time was built as a personal project to which I was powerfully drawn and compelled to complete, when photography and real life events mixed and coevolved. It is an allegory story of changes that we go through time, as we age and develop denial and disbelief about wrinkles written by the unstoppable time flow. This too will turn into a book.
I have been involved in some other major photography projects. One of them is a preplanned solo exhibition Challenging the Wind. For six months I followed and photographed the activity of Etgarim (Challenges), an Israeli non-profit organization that joins volunteers with people of mental or physical disabilities to do sport activities in the Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. The photographs are now grouped in a gallery on my website. Its sales where e my contribution to the organization. The entire exhibition is based on my spacetime photography techniques, showing the vibe of challenged cycling through the park.
PhotoArt Blog
My blog gives me the opportunity to elaborate on details of the creation of certain images, including their use of Time and of special photography or post-processing techniques. I also use the blog to ask philosophical questions about art and photography, and on the boundaries between Documenting Photography, Photographic Art and Photography-Based Art. Some posts present news in my photography (what and how), such as photographing Paralympic sports. Other posts are more technical, presenting tips and guides to special techniques of photography and of post processing.
NOTE: The English version of the blog is now far behind its Hebrew version. This will be fixed soon. Please stay tuned..
Teaching Photography and Postprocessing
Using my experience in teaching at all levels, academic and otherwise, and my knowledge and in photography and postprocessing techniques of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, I have been teaching photography online and offline, to groups and individuals. Details about my teaching can be found in the Hebrew mirror webpage.
Exhibitions, Awards and Publications
Awards and Prizes
2021: IPA (International Photography Awards). Honorable Mention, Category: Advertising-Self Promotion. Title: Through the Train’s Window.
2020: Senior Citizens in Photography. 3rd Prize, The Israeli Office of Social Equality. Subject: Senior Citizens in a Cover Album. Title: Abby Road.
2020: Tifa (Tokyo International Foto Awards). Honorable Mention, Category: Fin Art. Title: A Dreamy Early Morning.
2020: 15th International Color Awards. Honorable Mention, Category: Wildlife. Title: Fragile Existence.
2020: 14th International Color Awards. Honorable Mention, Category: Fine Art. Title: Yellow Fish Pond.
2020: IPA (International Photography Awards). Honorable Mention, Category: Sport-Sport Competitions. Title: Giro D’Italia 2018 entering Tel Aviv.
2020: 15th Black and White Color Awards. Finalist, Category: Silhouette. Title: Her Mind on Her Way to School.
2019: 14th Black and White Color Awards. Finalist, Category: Fine Art. Title: Personae.
2020: IPA OneShot: Movement. Honorable Mention, Category: Fine Art. Title: Pigeon.
2019: 13th International Color Awards.(1) Honorable Mention, Category: Sport. Title: In Between Skies. (2) Finalist: Category: People. Title: Amongst the Gazania Flowers. (3) Finalist, Category: Fine Art. Title: A Dreamy Early Morning.
2018: Tifa (Tokyo International Foto Awards). Honorable Mention, Category: Science/Environment. Title: Invasion.
2018: IPA (International Photography Awards). Honorable Mention, Category: Special/Digitally Enhanced. Title: Personae.
2016: The Botanical Garden of the Hebrew University and The Botanical Garden of San Diego. 3rd Prize. Title: Dancing in White in the Desert.
2013: 5th Edition of the Pullux Awards. Honorable Mentions: (1) Category Environment. Title: Intrusion. (2) Category: Nature. Title: Being Different.
2013: San Diego Art Institute. In a Group Exhibition: The Art of Photography Show. Title: Libby’s One Year Birthday.
Solo Exhibitions
2019: Challenging the Wind. Photographs in space-time of Beith Shneor, the Bicycling Club of Etgarim Institute in the Yarkon Park.
2012: Wrinkles in Time. Reflections of the time passes, in Photographs and Poems.
Publications: Photographed Articles
2015: Israeli Lens Magazine No. 11. Subject: Still Life. Title: Iris to Iris.
1999: Massa Acher: Hawaii Before Mankind.
1998: Massa Acher: Eagle Feathers and the Red Cross: Native American Ceremonies.