"Waiting for my man"

an interview with Dudy Dayan

Published on 28 November 2016

Tell us a bit about yourself, how you discovered an interest in fashion photography and how can you describe your own photography style?
I've always had an interest in photography, which made me go study it for four years. During the studing period I discovered I like to absereve the human life through photography - this comes from curiosity of life and different forms of living.
In the last couple of years, fashion and different fashion life-styles strarted interesting me. I was always curious about beauty and what beauty really is. The fashion world basically deals with beauty, so photographing fashion was my way to express myself in my own style of photography.
I'm trying to bring my own uniqe style by using analouge cameras and capturing the plastic fashion world in a real way usind film and stepping out of the digital basic way to show it.

What the story behind one of your latest editorials "Waiting for my man"? 

On my last trip to NYC I was walking down the streets of Brooklyn and saw a cool vintage store called Collections, and saw a scene of people changing their cloths, drinkind and dancing - just like it took out from a backstage of a fashion show.
I walked in, and asked them to take a shoot of them in the same atmosphere they were in. I think they were not aware of what I could do as a photographer and I liked that.
We all had an inocent love to experience and document and that's what we did.

Tell us about the cast. How did you choose these models and why.

The cast of the shoot were two modles from NY Fashion Week, and a few friends that have an interst in modeling and wanted to make their dream come true. The fact that some of the modles are not professional made the shooting more interesting and inspiring. Something I really love to do because you can not expect the results.

Who was your team for this series? What qualities do you look for and/or admire in the people you work with?
I worked with a friend - Amit Ben Nun - who is a stylist based in NY. Who made a great work with the mix-and-match vintage cloths to the models, which gave the shoot a colorful 70's look. That's why it was called "Waiting for My Man" - after the Lou Reed song from the 70s.

Seems you did a pretty global work for this story. Which part of it are you most proud of?
I was very glad I could create a new reallity by making a collaboration with the models natural style, the vitage store cloths and NYC streets. And using the fashion world to make a statment about the urbanity of the NY scene now days.

What emotions are most present in this work and why did you choose to portray them?
I think that sadness captured the essence of the shoot, and the will of the beautiful models to show me a different way to look at fashion photography.

How did you choose the location? Where this series took place?
Since I like the street where I live in Israel and NY, shooting in the street was a natural choice for me, which capturing the present of NY lifestyle.

What is the most important in photography for you and what are your main inspirations?
The most important thing for me is using photography to tell the truth about people and life. I take my inspirations from everything around me – people, religions, genders, different kinds of culture. And I think the shoot Waiting for My Man deals with all the above.

What upcoming projects can we expect to see from you?

I am now working on my next solo show in TLV and my first photography book with collaboration of Keren Arnaldes and moo@ar studio that edited and will be coming out soon. I’m still using my love-hate realationship in the fashion world to justify the memento-mori idea, which means that beauty is temporary.

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