The Dragon Portraits Sessions

I specialize in Black & White reportage and documentary style portrait photography. My decision to start a Documentary Portrait series about people with large Tattoos was motivated by the fact that Tattoos has become a Pop Culture, a fashion and a Social Phenomenon. There are many studies and essays on the subject, but I couldn’t find many photographic reportages on the topic, that were focused on portraits. In addition, in my opinion, this is a very photogenic and graphic theme. The Dragon Portrait Sessions is a Documentary Portraits Series about men and women of all ages, with large tattoos. The venue for the series is a famous Tattoo studio in Tel Aviv, named Dragon, and my subjects are the patrons of this Studio. This is a work-in-progress and the sessions are being shot inside the Tattoo studio, next to a large window, to use natural light. A black curtain serves as background. As the series is documentary (on-site, natural light), I left the blemishes and folds of the curtain visible. For these sessions, I wanted to take the subjects out of their comfort zone, to reveal something personal. In this case, I had to direct them at times, not to make them pose for the camera, but to push them as far as they were willing to go. I use Leica Cameras (M and SL) and Leica Lenses. I develop in black&white using NIK Silver FX PRO (from Lightroom)