Tel Aviv, 2007, at Allenby and Sheinkin Streets Possibly 2007 - 2014

This photograph, "Tel Aviv, 2007, at Allenby and Sheinkin Streets" was captured by Leo Rubinfien. It’s a study in black and white, a tonal scale shifting between shadow and light. Look at the way Rubinfien has captured the main subject, every line etched on her face seems to tell a story. The way the light falls, it's almost like a chiaroscuro painting; those deep shadows give her face a sculptural quality. The grainy texture adds a certain rawness, a feeling of immediacy. And the focus is sharp, rendering every detail with a kind of brutal honesty. That strand of hair falling across her forehead, that’s a masterstroke of capturing the casualness of real life. It reminds me a little of Diane Arbus, especially the way she'd photograph people on the streets of New York. Rubinfien captures something similar here, an unflinching gaze and a moment in time, hanging between past and future.