Gil Lavi
Gil Lavi (Hebrew: גיל לבי×) is an Israeli Photographer.
Lavi began his professional career as a journalist for the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv and as a photography editor for the SA Media Group.
During his compulsory military service with the Israel Defense Forces(IDF), Lavi served as a photographer for Ground Forces Command. Coinciding with his military service, as a civilian, he started to operate in the fields of commercial photography and brand imagery consulting.
Following his release from the IDF, he founded Studio Gil Lavi for commercial photography and brand imagery consulting. He is an Israeli pioneer in these fields. Some of his international clients include Brinks, Orange, Deloitte.
In the Czech Republic during 2008, Lavi photographed "Liliuva 8," an architectural project designed by Versace that won the Centre for Investigative Journalism CIJ prize for the best residential project in Europe. Later in the year, Lavi created a photography series called "Hazy Shade of a Bride," which portrayed the life of a drag queen.
During Operation Cast Lead (Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009) Lavi launched the "City of War" project, a photography exhibition which dealt with the lives of Israeli citizens living in the South of the country during the war. The exhibition was televised jointly with Reshet during the war on Israel's Channel 2 Television, and was broadcast with a supplement of works by other well-known Israeli artists including Rita, Eli Yatzpan, Uri Gotlieb, Yael Poliakov, Kobi Oz, among others.
As Hamas terrorism continued to threaten Israel, Lavi also launched the photo exhibition, "Soldier's in White" which focused on the lives of Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) volunteers who came from all over the world in order to contribute their skills and knowledge to Israel during the war.
In 2009 Lavi travelled to the United States in order to photograph several commercial projects in New York and Florida, and mounted two more exhibitions. These included "Under Attack," which concerned the impact of the global economic crisis on the United States and "Freeze," which focused on life in Soho, New York.
Later in 2009 Lavi produced and edited a photographical story about the murders of gay teenagers in Tel Aviv which was published in the International Time Out magazine. Lavi was also interviewed for a Paris radio station called "Radio Shalom" about the photo story, stating "I didn't think that I was doing anything special with the photos from the night of the murders. I was feeling that I just need to shoot the reaction of the gay community and the feelings of gay youngsters who had been to the place of the murders. Only when Time Out called did I understand that it's essential to share those photos with the world".
For Israel's 61st Independence Day, Lavi shared 61 pictures from Israel under common creative license for free usage to enhance the image of Israel over the world.
Towards the end of 2009 Lavi was hired by the Israeli government to create the photographic concept and to produce the Imagery for Israel's brand book, a project led by the ministry of foreign affairs and Y&R brands & Acanchi. Lavi photographed for Michael Bloomberg's successful third term run for mayor of New York.
In 2009 Lavi was rated by the Forbes magazine as one of the 300 most influential Israelis under the age of 40.
External Links
References
- Interview with Gil Lavi in Maariv
- Article about Soldiers in white photo series
- Forbes List of the 300 most infuntial Israelis under 40
he:גיל לבי×