Artists
Ohad Maiman
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Ohad Maiman is a New York based Philosopher and Artist. Following 3 years of service in the IDF Special Forces, Maiman has travelled the Far East and South America extensively, eventually settling in New York in the summer of '99. He graduated from Columbia University in Philosophy and Visual Arts '03. Maiman is preoccupied with capturing life in its spontaneous, instinctual instances. His international street photography, richly saturated with color, are humanistic vignettes that herald natural simplicity over what Maiman claims as the doomed fate of highly constructed fine art. His own words best describe the essence of his photographs:
Venture Originally, We all have an inner Beast… A particular, powerful, often-secretive Passion for something. Anything. "In a world saturated with societal norms of conduct, even the rebel has been given a mould to fit in. To begin with, these norms are a wonderful system responsible for catapulting humanity into a state where we no longer kill each other at random will. Where we all know how to be courteous, civil, and polite to each other. Yet when those norms come to shape the internal core of our personal 'self', we have a problem. Should it not bother us that our individual character is shaped by ideas and concepts strictly not our own? That there exist those ideals greater than ourselves we ought to follow? Beyond basic rule of law I find conformity to be a wretched form of spiritual death; vanquishing freedom so efficiently it is left to be found only in rare genuine expression. To be exact, freedom is not found in mass-produced dissent. Goth, Punk, or any other form of organized rebellion are as corrosive as the system they rise against. Fakeness can be a malignant condition. And yet against all odds, some people still march to their own drumbeat. We find them strangely confident in their own eccentricities and often wonder where they found the nerve to be so… unusual. They seem to know something most of us lost. I shoot life. As vivid and shameless as I can find it. The following series is by no means intended to evoke in you the same feelings and meaning I experienced when I shot them. I trust you would find your own. But they beg a question. One I believe we each need to ask ourselves- What makes me unique?" Wonder "If you ever went a step back and took a fresh, hard, questioning look at everything; whether around the world or around the corner; set aside the time to Wander… or the patience to Wonder… You may recognize some of the following images. Whether it is because you decipher my story, make up your own, or truly let all guards down and see how comfortable or defensive, empathic or indifferent, widely different forms of existence make you feel. You may come to wonder how come we keep chasing and guessing the meaning of life while all along it is staring us in the face; most often in the smile of our child or lover. You may come to wonder how all of us animals sharing this world have managed to create a society and ideals greater than ourselves. You may come to wonder how with so many simultaneously coexisting realities we all actually manage to communicate, and coexist. I am not yet sure why is everything, but I am sure it is spectacular. |