Tel Aviv, 2007, on King George V Street Possibly 2007 - 2014

Leo Rubinfien took this photograph in Tel Aviv in 2007, somewhere on King George V Street. When I look at this image, I think about the decisive moment and how street photography can capture so much of life's mystery. I imagine Rubinfien walking along, camera in hand, and then, bam! He sees her. There she is, a woman with a wide-brimmed hat, her eyes wide with surprise or maybe just a touch of apprehension. It's a face that tells a story, a face that makes you wonder. What's she looking at? What's she thinking? What's her story? The beauty of photography, like painting, is how it can distill a whole world into a single frame. Rubinfien’s photograph reminds me of the work of other street photographers like Garry Winogrand and Helen Levitt, who had an eye for the odd and the ordinary moments. Here, he's not just taking a picture; he's inviting us to see, to feel, to imagine the lives that intersect on a street corner in Tel Aviv.