Last Thursday I went on an art crawl featuring Aperture artists' openings from Michal Chelbin, Paul Fusco, Josef Koudelka, and Polixeni Papapetrou. I was particularly drawn to Chelbin's portraits. Her subjects gaze calmly at the viewer, bathed in a gentle and hazy European light.
The exhibit is described as, "Exposing the world of performers and wrestlers across Ukraine, Eastern Europe, England, and Israel, Michal Chelbin reveals images that are both odd and ordinary to their viewers. The settings, costumes, and even some of the subjects themselves may seem exotic, but her portraits manage to unearth familiarity in the lives of her subjects. Strangely Familiar presents human stories from everyday life, those that exist in the space between fantasy and reality. By capturing her subjects in natural settings apart from their lives as performers, Chelbin creates a private moment for those who are living very public lives.
The exhibition coincides with the publication by Aperture of the monograph Strangely Familiar (essay by Leah Ollman), which presents the complete project."
ETA: Here's a post about Chelbin's work.
