Selected Works

Yael Shachar was born in 1974, lives and works in Israel.

Shachar is an interdisciplinary artist working mostly with photography and documentary cinema. A graduate of the ‘Musrara’ School of photography in Jerusalem, completed with Honors, (2001). Since 2010 Yael is also an award winning film director. Her first film ‘Melissa mom and Me’ (2010), was successfully distributed worldwide by DogWoof. ‘Melissa mom and me’ also got the award of ‘Excellence in Television Documentary’ by the IAWRT. In 2019, she co-directed with director Sharon Yaish the film ‘A Whore like me’  the film premiered at the Israeli competition at DocAviv and won the very prestigious ‘Israeli Oscar ‘. at The Ophir Awards for ‘Best Documentary under 60 minutes’.

“In my work I often depict people that are a part of my everyday life, while observing the various coping mechanisms with issues such as sexuality, culture, gender and taboos. My work often deals with the wide connotations these everyday dealings bring forth and the conflicts they induce. One of the dominant themes is the unique fabric and social climate of Israel and the way it reacts to the Americanisation process and the capitalist influences. This process where movies and narratives intertwine in local culture and become an integral part of it, plays a large role in aesthetics. These elements both mask and reveal signifiers such as commerce and violence as they reveal inner complexes regarding access and void.

I attempt to capture the abnormalities that occur within known conventions that are an inherent part of the immediate surroundings. The work is often visually seductive and uses techniques of photography that are part of these conventions, but are used to draw the viewers away from their comfort zone. My work is often an ongoing process that contains following prominent female figures in my life. The series ‘Sisters,’ which I started in 1997, follows a set of women who are part of my immediate circle of friends and my family. The work observes the boundaries between the natural and the theatrical of performance aspects of femininity.

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