Lihi Brosh: On Creativity
Marianna
You’ve spent many years shooting street, celebrity, and editorial photos in various places. How did it all begin?
Lihi
I started when I was 13 years old - I knew I wanted to attend an arts high school, so my teacher gifted me a photography class. I immediately fell in love. I knew I was all in.
When I was 14, I worked on my first fashion editorial. I had never done something like that - I would pick up the phone and call up hairstylists, and agencies and ask them for models. As you can expect, lots of people hung up the phone on me, or laughed and told me to call back when I was older... I was 14 and no one knew who I was. But I wasn’t put off. That was the beginning.
When I started as a fashion photographer, my first photographs were for fellow students. We had a chance to develop our careers together. When they graduated, they wanted me to photograph their final projects. And after a year, they’d want me to photograph their new collections...and it evolved from there.
When I turned 17, I realized my options in Israel were limited. What you see is what you get, and there wasn’t much space to develop. Israel has incredible people, but the industry is small.
Marianna
How did you start shooting street photography?
Lihi
Because I was traveling so often, I wasn’t able to build structures to develop my fashion projects. Larger projects take time, the artistic editorial takes time, and I didn’t have time. I was always on the move. I was one month in New York, and then I was off to Spain or Israel...
So I started carrying my disposable camera on the streets and snapping things I liked. In the beginning, I didn’t take it too seriously. It was fun. But I noticed that clients and galleries were interested in pieces from the streets, images that were more layered. Up until this point, fashion for me had been about building a character, where maybe you also build a story around a character, but once the photo shoot is done, the character disappears and the model walks off.
I thought to myself if I shot something for a documentary, the people I shot would be real, their character would be real, the documentary would end and they’d walk off the same person. That piqued my interest. Street fashion felt more layered, more romantic.
Marianna
What does creativity mean to you?
Lihi
Creativity is an idea in visual form.
Marianna
When do your best ideas hit you?
Lihi
On the streets. The best ideas hit me when I'm outside. On walks you end up seeing new faces, visiting new places - it opens up the chance for new bright colors, textures, and architecture to catch your eye. It might even be as simple as walking and overhearing an interesting conversation.
Marianna
What sources of inspiration do you use to foster creativity in your work?
Lihi
My mentors Clayton Patterson and Q.sakamaki are a huge source of inspiration in my life.
I also feel inspired by old movies from the ’70s, strong personalities on the streets, as well as online sources like Magnum, and more generally social media, etc.
Marianna
You also took on a big project early on, you published a magazine - how did that process push you creatively?
Lihi
The magazine was something I created upon my return to Israel. I got back from New York, and I felt like there were so many talented artists who weren’t being seen. I wanted to create a platform for artists to feel comfortable and to put their art out there. I wanted for it to feel down to earth.
I reached out to 40 artists, created a simple page online, and asked them to upload whatever they felt like sharing. Everyone got so excited. We had 20,000 views on the first day. I felt the weight of it then, that there was a space, a need that had to be filled. We did covers on fashion, music, graffiti, skateboarding, videos, social media - each person took a different section. It was such a magical time.
We worked on it for almost a year, and it was magic but we didn’t have money. It dwindled from 40 people to 20, to 10, to just a few. Overall, it was a good learning experience. Still, it’s always in the back of my mind. You learn a lot from failure. It’s something that I still want to do in a bigger way, but it wasn’t the right time. I didn’t have all the tools then. I want to come back to it when I’m ready.
Marianna
How would you describe your creative process?
Lihi
Every time I photograph, I’m aware of not wanting to fall into the same loop. I don’t want to be an artist who captures the same images in different structures. On my last trip to New York, I set out to capture stories of people in the day time, not just the people of the night. I wanted to show a softer side of New York, which really isn’t that soft at all [laughter]. Day time photography allowed me to see a different side of downtown Manhattan and the lifestyle, it’s people, it’s youth…
Even though the moment of photographing someone is an act of spontaneity, it’s about building the concept beforehand. What is the story? What are you looking for? It all begins with research. For example, with street photography in downtown manhattan, researching the history of the Lower East Side. How did the streets look like, the clothes, the people, the spaces?
Then researching photographers and camera angles that catch your eye, and deciding what your purpose is - want do you want to show. The story comes first. When you know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to find.
Marianna
Do you find yourself experimenting in your work?
Lihi
Always! It's very important as an artist to keep evolving and growing, to push yourself, and to try new things while maintaining your own aesthetic stamp.
It's a challenge, and the learning process never ends.
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About Lihi Brosh:
Lihi Brosh is a contributing photographer to various print & web publications. Her credits include ID Magazine, Dazed Magazine, Nylon Magazine Japan, Schon Magazine, XXL Magazine, Hypebeast Magazine, Blank Magazine, Time-Out Tel Aviv, Mako, Papertrail Magazine, Vans Magazine, and Go Style Magazine.