"Seeing a picture is one experience, taking it and experiencing the place is a completely different experience," says photographer Moshe Shai, 68. "There's no substitute for touching the DNA of a place and it's a never-ending experience for me, every time in a new place."
Shai, a photojournalist with more than 40 years of experience, has photographed for many media outlets in Israel and around the world the sporting, cultural and news events of the State of Israel. In between, he goes on photography trips to the world's remote and exotic places, about which he also lectures in a fascinating lecture series.
"There is no substitute for touching the DNA of a place." Moshe Shai in Sri Lanka,
"My first trip was in 1978, to Western Europe, with a backpack and a sleeping bag," he recalls. "Since then, all these years, alongside my career as a photojournalist, I have traveled on photography trips. The main reason I traveled was not to have a good time. I want to expand the boundaries and possibilities. For a good frame I will travel to every hole, often without knowing where I will sleep at night. All in order to feel that supreme feeling, that you have captured the frame."
Cuba - "I Discovered Paradise"
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In this picture you can see a standard of living of a place. A person who travels with a TV on a bicycle, that says it all. I've been to Cuba several times, the first time it wasn't touristy at all. I came to a country that had been closed to the world for many years and suddenly opened, but as soon as I passed the soldiers with Kalashnikovs at the airport, I picked up a '55 Chevrolet and drove through Havana, I discovered paradise."
Antarctica - Frozen
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"I read a lot about Antarctica before I went there, but there's nothing like stepping on the ice and photographing penguins from zero distance, a crazy experience. It was so cold that I was wearing clothes I didn't know existed."
Brazil - in Georges Amado's district
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"About this quarter in Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the famous writer Georges Amado wrote his book 'Dona Flor and its Two Owners.' It's a particularly exotic district, and I came to the woman I photographed unexpectedly, because I knew she would run away. I jumped up and took a picture of her, and she did run away."
Burning Man Festival, Nevada, USA - Land of Neverending Fantasies
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"This festival is Alice in Wonderland. To this day I'm not sure I was there. You arrive in a hole in the desert, enter a land of artistic fantasies where everyone walks as he pleases and has no money, and sees huge statues traveling, a plunge in the desert, a giant grasshopper and other crazy and delusional creations. And there's always a sandstorm in between."
Zenizbar - Princesses of the Tides
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"I came to Zanzibar before it became a tourist destination. One day I saw a woman standing on the beach looking at the sea with a paella on her head. Then another one came, and another one, and I realized something was going on. It turned out to be a floating market of edible wafers brought by a fisherman by boat, and they go into the sea and buy. In the picture on the right, I took a woman dragging an algae branch. The differences in water level between the tides in Zanzibar are insane. People enter hundreds of meters into the sea, where there are beds for growing algae."
Burma - Golden Rock
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In Burma you see a lot of Buddhist monks, of all ages, so of course I photographed some of these 'nun flowers.' I saw the golden rock temple in the second picture and said to myself that I must go to this place. I ate a lot of straw to take this picture. The road there was not easy, and the night before I slept in the warehouse with rats running around me all night, but the picture remains - and the difficulties pass."
Greece - Pelican Bag
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In northern Greece there is a lake called Lake Kerkini, where you can look masses of pelicans in the white of the eyes, photograph them from a touching distance, and also touch them literally. Pelicans approach boats hoping to get food and are not afraid, unlike pelicans in Israel, for example, who run away."
India - Life Itself
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In eastern India, in a city called Puri, I entered a compound where dozens of bodies are cremated a day. As part of the cremation ceremony, the woman in the picture, whose husband was the deceased, had to light the fire and suddenly a heartbreaking scream came out of her and she immediately fainted. The photo on the right, at the Kumba Mela ceremony, was one of the hardest of my life, because of the abnormal crowding. Tens of millions of people in one place. I took the picture while walking, because if you stop you'll be trampled."
Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) - Naked King
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In the south of the African continent is a kingdom with a king who is married to 15 women and lives in a palace, while his people have nothing to eat. Once a year, thousands of virgins in the country parade before the king bare-chested, hoping to be elected a woman. Dissonably, I filmed the crying baby there in a hospital for children infected with AIDS."
Congo - Dress Code
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"I passed by a clothing store in Congo and saw a man who was helping a European businessman. The businessman sent him to buy himself a suit to be presentable, and I caught the guy measuring the first suit of his life. He lives in a neighborhood with sewage flowing through the streets, and came downtown to buy a suit, which is a stark contrast to where he lives."
North Korea - Winds of the North
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In North Korea, you can't move without an escort, but I wanted to photograph the military parade up close, so I was brazen and strived for contact. The train in this country is amazing, everything is ticked and quiet, hundreds of people leave and you don't hear footsteps. When we were there, they suddenly shouted at me, 'Don't you hear that the train is waiting for you?' and I didn't understand when a subway was waiting for someone. It turned out that the driver doesn't start driving without getting a signal from the attendants there, so I filmed her and quickly got into the car."
Tuvalu - Island in the Stream
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"The tiny island in the Pacific Ocean has 11,<> inhabitants. When I was in the area, I got stuck with a hole in my schedule, and someone threw me 'Go to Tuvalu.' When I landed there, cars drove by the plane because it's a shame about the place for the road, so the runway is also a main road. A real paradise that they had to separate me from with Lum."
Nicaragua - A Simple Love Song
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In eastern Nicaragua, in a surreal city of shanties and one hotel with a casino, I was standing in the evening drinking beer when I saw this guy singing to his wife Serenade. I ran like a maniac into the room, brought the camera and managed to capture the moment, and if you look closely you can see that the woman is doing lice treatment for their little girl."
Samoa - On the Fish and the Sword
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"On a pleasant afternoon on the island of Samoa, I suddenly saw a fishing boat approaching, and from it came three guys who were lifting this huge swordfish together. I caught them a second before they fell into the water because of its enormous weight."
Vanuatu - Dance of the Lost Tribes
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"Vanuatu is a great island nation in the South Pacific. From its main island, I came to a smaller island, where I met tribes that were once cannibals, and lived in a tree house."
Vietnam - Good Morning
Photo: Moshe Shai,
Photo: Moshe Shai,
"In the growing process, there is a certain day when the women come to the field and plant the rice. Of course, I went into the mud with them and sank with my sandals, so I couldn't get my feet out. I stood there like a goofy, but luckily one of them put her hands in the mud and let me go. While she was doing this, a friend of hers exploded with laughter—and I took a picture. Elsewhere in the country, I came to the temple of the Cao Dai religion, whose members wear white."
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