Chance Inheritance, Dafna Shalom
2009 , New York
During the 2 weeks of homebase residency I walked around lower manhattan,stopping men who reminded me of my deceased father and inviting them to be photographed. Some refused, some came to my studio, and others preferred to be photographed right then and there.
The act subverted the fear-based practice of spotting "suspicious strangers", intoa conceptual act of grieving, and diffusing dichotomies of us and them. Questions related to identity and identification, otherness and belonging. surfaced while working, as well as a desire to put into an existing image what was resonating in my mind.
Suggestions and formal explorations were also part of a process that transcends nostalgia and is situated between the intimate and the anonymous. Each interaction and image became an opening to a residue of thoughts and their sum suggests a random or imagined collective portrait.