Michal Chelbin

Xenia in the Playground, Russia 2003

Michal Chelbin (b.1974, Israel) is currently based in New York City. She has been shown in solo and group  exhibits in the US and Europe, most recently at the Andrea Meislin Gallery in New York. Her recent publications include Art Forum, American Photo, PDN , New York Arts Magazine, Aperture, B&W Magazine, and the LA Times. Her editorial work has been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker and  New York Magazine. Michal’s monograph entitled “Strangely Familiar: Acrobats, Athletes and other traveling troupes” was published in April 2008 by Aperture. Her next monograph will be published by Twin Palms in fall 2009.

About the Photograph:
Like with other subjects I worked a lot with this girl, . She was one of those people who didn’t need any instructions in front of the camera. She didn’t understand Hebrew and I didn’t speak Russian but I felt we understood each other perfectly It was the first color image of this series. I actually shot it in black and white  but when we finished, and started to go back to the apartment something didn’t feel right. So I returned, made the whole thing again, this time in color. It’s entitled “Xenia on the Playground”,  and I’d like to think of my playground as somewhere between the private and the public, between fiction and documentary.