Yoram Gelman

Yoram Gelman Photography | 65 Saint Paul Road, Red Hook 12571 | (914) 262-8037 | rough terrain walk to exhibition barn
ygelmanphoto.com | ygelmanphoto@gmail.com | Instagram: @ygelmanphoto | @ygelmancolor

Born in Palestine, raised in Cleveland, degrees in Physics and Economics, live in Red Hook, mostly self-taught in photography.

My photographs are ideas, fragments of thought, implying narratives based on the images.  To that extent I agree with Noam Chomsky: the idea that we have art and music is because we can’t say everything we want with language.

Most of my work is black and white, analogous to my taste in music. . . small ensembles where I can hear individual lines among the blends of others. I keep color when it’s not distracting.

My subjects are most often taken from nature or structures created by humans, listening or looking for those clear musical lines. Curves formed by shadows, especially when falling on curved surfaces, form abstracted shapes.  I try to find the most interesting narrative.

Often my images lead the viewer out of the frame, suggesting more, leaving enough, but without what lies beyond, inviting contemplation to finish the narrative: trees disappearing as they recede into mist at ground level, visible at higher levels; or sunlight seeping through leaves while forming their shadows at the same time.

My background in mathematics and physics influences me both concretely and philosophically.  In my photography I appreciate “negative time” as well as negative space; I sense the idea of limits.  The form of the curve holds conceptual as well as visual fascination.

Lastly, many photographers have affected me but Stiegletz and André Kertész have captivated me more than others, and Roland Barthe deserves mention.  On the other hand, I owe them all.