“I learn deeply from personal connections. Humans are amazing to me,” explains self-taught photographer Or Sachs, who lives and creates in Tel Aviv. “With the camera, I can really get into it. I have a magnifying glass with which to look through.” Sach’s works walk the line between documentary and art. His oeuvre is powerful in its gentle quiet, yet it is bold and honest. More than just an observer. Sachs becomes part of what is happening in the space he uses; like a study within the photograph, he lives alongside the process, waiting for that particular moment to catch the most honest frame and tell a precise story.
In one of his most recent projects, Pavel and Lucia are his subjects, and capturing them on film took place during the Corona pandemic. Sachs and his partner were living with their newborn daughter on one of the kibbutzim nearby the Sea of Galilee with their newborn daughter. Sachs was out for a walk in the area, carrying his camera, when he came across Lucia and her daughter, Uma. He introduced himself and offered to take a picture of them. Lucia agreed and they scheduled another photo session.
A few weeks later, Lucia invited Sachs to come to their house to get to know her partner Pavel, as well. “I arrived at their apartment on the kibbutz and Lucia opened the door for me. When Pavel and I were introduced, he immediately recognized the camera I had in my hand and said, with a little sadness, that he used to have the exact same one, but just before the flight to Israel he had sold it. “I had a lot of good memories with that camera,” he recalled. An instant connection was formed between the two of them.
The couple’s story began three years earlier in the suburbs of Moscow. Nineteen-year-old Pavel and twenty-two-year-old Lucia met at the Art College in Moscow. They fell in love and Lucia became pregnant. They had a dream of another life for their new daughter and when she was born they decided to go on a journey. Fast forward in time and place, to Kibbutz Hukok, where they now live with their two and a half-year old daughter, Uma. Pavel and Lucia wanted a place surrounded by nature, a chance for a new adventure.
The Story Begins Like This
A week after the meeting both of them together, Sachs came over and said: “Listen, I think you are amazing. I think there is a beautiful story here.” He hadn’t even finished his sentence before they said yes. And that was the beginning of Sachs documenting their friendship and relationship for the next year and a half; Always at the break of day, once a week, for about 3-4 hours each time. “Actually, I began to feel my presence took on the role of an uncle or a brother and sometimes even a useful friend, translating messages and letters from Hebrew explaining how to get somewhere, from point A to point B, assisting in travel arrangements and especially in my being part of the process,” explains Sachs.
At the same time, a close relationship was forming with Pavel. The strong connection and the fact that Sachs also recently became a father bridges the age difference between them. After studying for six months, Pavel and Sachs began speaking fluently in Hebrew together.
The documentary project also fused a kinship between the two. “In practice, my role is as an observer,” says Sachs. “Using film keeps me present and connected. The main thing is the meeting itself. I arrive with two rolls - in total, that means twenty pictures. And then there might be a moment - I take three photos - and maybe that’s it. There is something about the experience of it. Film is slow, precise, and expensive, which requires me to be much more thorough and close and attentive. It’s not rushed. The communication, the conversation, everything flows.”
“In my work, I constantly play on the tension of what is magical and what is real. I keep the seam-line between the two aspects very subtle in order to maintain the romance,” explains Sachs. “I am a very grounded person and there is something about Lucia and Pavel’s adventure that is exhilarating. In parallel to trying to tell their story, I also tried to understand what my story is in the process. I think Lucia and Pavel represent that same contrast for me; between realism and fantasy.”
On one hand, there is the very real survival instinct of raising a child, of providing security and a home, in addition to living in a foreign country without any help or support. And then, on the other hand, there is the the beauty and innocence of what happens in each of their encounters. “They, themselves, are eager and longing to experience the world and discover the who and what of it all,” explains Sachs. “As far as I am concerned, I photograph people and places that I have not yet known in my own life, and I get to enter this space through the lives of others. A bit like revolving doors.”
