Water treatment, Reuel Goleden Ag36

64 APPROACHES: AVIGAIL SCHIMMEL

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IF THERE IS ONE CITY that has been pho-t o g raphed more than any other it is probably Ne wYo rk. Eve ry aspect of the self-proclaimed ‘g re a t e s tcity in the world’ slogan has been re c o rded fro me ve ry possible angle and perspective. Think backto the great photographers of the last century:Alvin Langdon Co b u rn documented the ri s i n gi n d u s t rial cityscape in 1910. Be renice Abbott, inl a rge format, shot the booming arc h i t e c t u re of thecity in the 1930s. Weegee was re n owned for hisc rime scene photos of the 1930s and ‘ 4 0 s. Wi l l i a mKlein and Helen Levitt, in the 1950s, brought theirc a m e ras up close and personal as they pho-t o g raphed vibrant street life in Manhattan. Di a n eArbus shot port raits of eccentric New Yo rkers inthe 1960s and early 1970s. Ro b e rt Ma p p l e t h o r p eand Nan Goldin photographed the altern a t i ve1980s New Yo rk lifestyles. And then there we re thes weeping majestic cityscapes of Ro b e rt Po l i d o ri inthe 1990s.

It is a long list, and if you include great photog-raphers such as André Ke rtész and Paul St ra n d ,who also took compelling images of the city, italmost never ends. With such a legacy, it is there-f o re something of a daunting challenge for anyp h o t o g rapher to come up with a fresh way of see-ing New Yo rk. Especially so since eve ry time ap h o t o g rapher points their camera up tow a rds thes k y s c rapers or down tow a rds the streets how canthey not convey a sense of us all having beent h e re before? One person who is offering an alter-n a t i ve view is the Is raeli photographer Av i g a i l

Schimmel, who has been based in New Yo rk forthe last seven ye a r s.

Schimmel is not interested either in people orbuildings and this immediately sets her apartf rom the rest. This is not photography with anys o rt of opinion; it is about making beautiful pho-t o g ra p h s. What inspires her is how the natural –p a rticularly water – interacts with the man-made.She is also intrigued by the light and the sky, theshapes and colours that they yield, and how theyplay off each other.

Manhattan is a ve ry dense, urban enviro n m e n twith its all-encompassing arc h i t e c t u re blockingout eve rything, making it easy to forget that yo ua re on an island. Not Schimmel. Some of her bestimages are taken on the Staten Island Fe r ry, whichsails just south of Lower Manhattan. From thisvantage point she photographs the flickeri n gl i g h t s, haze and shadows of the city, set againstthe motion of the water. Her images are abstra c ti m p ressions of New Yo rk; fleeting, understatedmoments that slowly entice the viewe r.

All of Schimmel’s work is done using a tri p o d ,ISO100 film (Fuji Reala), long exposure s, and a6x6 Hassleblad. She insists on natural light, andrelies on the old-fashioned virtue of waitingpatiently to see what comes into the viewfin d e r.Si g n i fic a n t l y, she says that she is more inspired bythe ‘d e c i s i ve moment’ modus operandi of He n riCa rt i e r- Bresson than the carefully planned andp re - v i s u a l i zed landscape photography of, fori n s t a n c e, Ansel Ad a m s.

Water treatmentReuel Golden introduces the work of New York-based Avigail Schimmel

D Rain, New York.

‘Some of herbest images aretaken on theStaten IslandFerry, whichsails just southof LowerManhattan.From thisvantage pointshe photographsthe flickeringlights, haze andshadows of thecity, set againstthe motion ofthe water.’

65APPROACHES: AVIGAIL SCHIMMEL

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Since her subject matters are fle e t i n g - l i g h t ,s h a d ow and motion, there is a strong element ofchance to her images. She recalls that she oncet ried to re c reate an image of the Brooklyn Bri d g eand went back to exactly the same spot where shehad shot a year pre v i o u s l y, but the sky was differ-ent and it just didn’t work. ‘I ’ve always been dra w nto certain subjects such as motion and haze thata re hard to re c o rd with a camera ,’ she says. ‘I alsolike the way light can come in and out of thev i e w finder – the light say from a flashing car – andI ’m always anxious after I’ve taken the photo tosee whether it has re g i s t e re d .’

Schimmel believes that she can control therandom element of her work better if she pri n t sher own photogra p h s. ‘My contact sheets are hardto read and I feel that I’m the only one who canunderstand what is hidden there, not becausethey are technically problematic, but because ofthe conditions in which I shoot. The colour is ve rys u b j e c t i ve and it’s impossible to re c reate exactlywhat light was out there; it depends on me tochoose the color from the range of possibilities soI can get close as possible to what I saw when Ip ressed the shutter.’

She does not develop her own film, but apartf rom that she is totally hands-on with not a com-puter in sight. From the contact sheets, she fir s tmakes 10x8 pri n t s, typically around three peri m a g e. She then hangs them up on the wall ands t a res at them for a long time. Once she has seensomething that she likes she will enlarge thep ri n t s, which can of course change the look of thei m a g e, and then produce editions of her 20x16p rints limited to sets of 10.

Rather than printing and endlessly re p ri n t i n gan image, Schimmel will work with great intensi-ty with what she’s got and then move on. Sh etends to divide her work into three genres: tra ve llandscapes; abstracts with water; and cityscapes.When she pri n t s, she is conscious that there mustbe some kind of consistency in the tonal ra n g ea c c o rding to the subject matter, so there is ac o h e rent narra t i ve in the body of work.

Schimmel says that there are no great myster-ies when it comes to colour printing. She arg u e sthat if you have a strong sense of colour and aclear vision of what you want, then after trial ande r ro r, with the right chemistry and paper (shef a vours Fuji because of its high contrast) the pri n twill essentially take care of itself. ‘For me withcolour photography it is more to do with themoment when you take the picture, what film yo uuse and what you do when you expose the nega-t i ve. He re you can really control the colour fil t ra-tion, but generally it is not like black-and-whitep h o t o g raphy where something entirely new canbe re c reated in the dark ro o m .’ Ne ve rt h e l e s s, shedoes admit that getting the right print re q u i res alot of work.

If there is a signature to Schimmel’s work it isthe way she uses colour. It is ve ry saturated and att i m e s, almost monochromatic with ve ry littlec o n t rast. It is what gives her photos that hauntingb e a u t y, but it is a beauty that makes demands onthe viewe r. Take her photograph Fe r ry in Mo t i o n,one of her most compelling images (ove r l e a f) .T h e re is so much going on here with the shapesand movement of the water, the blues and gre y s,set against the eerie cityscape of lower Ma n h a t t a n

‘If there is a signature to Schimmel’s work it is the way she uses colour. It is very saturatedand at times, almost monochromatic with very little contrast. It is what gives her photos that

haunting beauty, but it is a beauty that makes demands on the viewer.’

JWhite wave, Staten

Island Ferry, New York.


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with its lights twitching in the distance. It is subtleand some of the detail may not immediately bea p p a rent to the viewe r. Howe ve r, once the viewe rtakes time to look at the picture, patterns andshapes begin to emerg e. It is a little like seeing inthe dark, when you can’t see anything at first buts l owly you adjust and start to see shapes andmake out objects.

T h e re is an innate purity to work which offersan interesting counter-point to so much photog-raphy being produced at the moment. Schimmel,who is in her early 30s, is too softly spoken andmodest to be any kind of spokesperson, but in herown subtle way she is beating a drum for purep h o t o g ra p h y. She won’t manipulate an image outof principle and rejects any kind of digital post-p roduction in her personal work. As she asserts: ‘Ic a n’t imagine working that way with an image,something is either there when I shoot it, or not’.Si m i l a r l y, she has little time for digital photogra-phy for her landscapes: ‘I just can’t see it work i n gfor the kind of landscapes that I do. A digital cam-e ra – as far as I can tell – would have a pro b l e mwith motion and long exposure s.’

Her views on digital are interesting becausealthough she is a fin e - a rt photogra p h e r, one ofthe ways she supports herself and finances herpersonal projects and tra vels (she has just comeback from India) is by shooting still life and artobjects for So t h e by ’s in New Yo rk. The auctionhouse is 100% digital so she shoots using 4x5c a m e ras with a digital back. She says she re s p e c t swhat they can do in this particular field, but couldn e ver imagine using them while perched over theStaten Island ferry waiting for the right light.

Schimmel sells her work and has gallery re p re-sentation. As well as group show s, she has hadt h ree solo shows in New Yo rk: one at a gallery ind ow n t own Manhattan in So Ho, one at a moreu p t own, fin e - a rt gallery, and one at the at theAlice Austen house in Staten Island, which isa p p ro p riately right on the water.

Paul Mo a k l e y, a photo editor with New s w e e k,who curated Schimmel’s Staten Island exhibition,says of her work: ‘Avigail doesn’t just make ord i-n a ry photos of what’s in front of her. Like ap a i n t e r, she really crafts a landscape using all thepossibilities on a sheet of film – such as colour,g rain and blur. Her work is done in camera and it’sso impre s s i ve to look at her contacts. The work isve ry much about patience, about waiting for thep e rfect light and experimentation. It is the oppo-site of the stark, crisp realism that’s popular ri g h tn ow in photogra p h y.’

Ultimately that is what makes Schimmel suchan appealing artist. In a city which is all aboutinstant gra t i fication and where the latest is some-h ow equated with the best, her old-fashionedv i rtues are to be tre a s u red. Especially now in thisdigital age and where snapshot photography isbeing produced by people such as Ju e rgen Te l l e rand lauded as high art. Schimmel’s images mayoften be about motion, but she remains still, eve nt i m e l e s s, in the way she makes pictures and in thetools she uses to get the final pri n t .

Ph o t o g raphy has always been a craft – we needpeople around like Schimmel just to keep onreminding us of that.

Reuel Go l d e n

‘There is an innate purity to work which offers an interesting counter-point to so much photographybeing produced at the moment. Schimmel, who is in her early 30s, is too softly spoken and modest to be

any kind of spokesperson, but in her own subtle way she is beating a drum for pure photography.’

D Ferry in motion, Staten

Island Ferry, New York.

Reuel Golden is a senior

editor of Photo District

News in New York, and

former editor of British

Journal of Photography.


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J Ferry deck, night, Staten Island Ferry, New York. A Ferry porthole, Staten Island Ferry, New York.


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J Blue Shadows, New York. A Blue Bridge, Verrazano Bridge, New York.

All photographs © Avigail Schimmel, courtesy of Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, New York. www.avigailschimmel.com.

Water treatment, Reuel Goleden Ag36

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