Michal Chelbin | See Me (Project Room)

Michal Chelbin’s exhibition, “SEE ME,” explores the artist’s play on one’s identity. Chelbin’s photography attempts to capture human stories in everyday life; the identities of people not in the mainstream, many of them belonging to the edge of society and existing in the space between the odd and the ordinary. Her main themes are not social or topical, but collective and mythical; she searches for people who have a legendary quality in them.

Chelbin’s subjects are fragile androgynous bodies, the antithesis of the common fashion model, who carry the burden of youthful beauty on their narrow shoulders — sometimes light and delicate as a feather, often dark and viscous as tar.

The armor of high fashion, the symbol of the pinnacle of economic success, turns upon their bodies from a creation of splendor to a veil of discomfort. Chelbin’s images are vehicles to address universal themes of family, ideas of normality, puberty, and the desire for fame.

She creates an informal scene in which her subjects directly confront the viewers, urging them to “See Me!” Her aim is to record a scene where there is a mixture of direct information and enigma, in which there are visual contrasts between young and old, large and small, regular and unique.

For Chelbin, the image is just the beginning; it’s the gateway to a story waiting to be told, about a life full of contradictions on the battleground between fantasy and reality.

Text by Matthew Garson, The Cleveland Israel Arts Connection of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, OH USA

Michal Chelbin (born 1974) is an Israeli photographer. Her work has been widely shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
Chelbin is a regular contributor to the world’s leading magazines such as: The NY Times, TIME, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, The Sunday Times, Le Monde and more
Time magazine approached her to photograph a story of the Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023. The cover story for Time was the most heartbreaking story Michal ever worked on. She went into the homes and photographed families who had loved ones kidnapped by Hamas. The raw pain is evident in her images. She thanks Time for giving these families a voice and also thanks Oded Plotnizki for producing this project.

Her work can be found in many private and public collections, such as: The Metropolitan Museum New York, LACMA; Getty Center LA, Jewish Museum New York, The Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Tel Aviv Museum; Sir Elton John collection, SF Moma and more. She has published 4 successful monographs, most recently by the Italian publisher “Damiani”
Her list of clients includes, among others- Dior, Gucci, Hermes, Armani, Pierre Cardin and more