TITLE: Intense times

The "COVID-19״ led to stress, chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect . We live in a culture where we are both “child centered” and “self-obsessed" and the isolation speeds up the struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality . Our family learned and discovered each other, My husband and I had to stay 24/7 with our 3 little girls. We traveled by car and slept in different houses and motels. In this new series I explore themes of identity, relationships, and the passage of time by documenting my girls in their daily lives at lockdown time.

AUTHOR: Noga Shtainer (Germany)

Born: 1982, Israel, Lives and works in Berlin.
Graduated in 2009 from the Department of Photography at Wizo Academy of Design and Education, Haifa, Israel. Completed in 2015 the master’s program at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie with Ute Mahler and Robert Lyons, Berlin, Germany.
In her work she constantly investigates personality, social and imaginary themes inspired by different people she has encountered and know, among them some of her family members.
Her photographs deal with childhood and family. When she was nine-years-old her parents divorced. This had an immense impact on her life. She was a teen-ager when she discovered photography and began documenting and staging private, intimate moments in her family’s daily life: “I was 15-years-old when I began creating my first project “Near Conscious” It took me 12 years to complete. During that time I began to understand that as in life, and in photographs, the inner experience is released and a new truth is created”.
Shtainer has shown her work in over 40 solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Israel, and USA. Her work has appeared at the National Portrait Gallery in London and Hearst Gallery in New York.
She participated in the project “Art Vending Machine” at the Jewish Museum in Berlin and was invited to be a curator at the “International Photography Festival” in Israel. Her works have been published and reviewed in international publications, including “Dente Di Fotogra”, “Der Spiegel”, “brennpunkt”, “The Marker”, “Artberlin”, “Berlin Quarterly”
and many more. She has been the recipient of numerous international awards, and fellowships including the Julia Margaret Cameron Award, MIA Portfolio Review, Hearst 8x10 Biennial, IPA, America Israel Cultural Keren Sharet, and the Shpilman Scholarship for photographer.
She is represented by the Hezi Cohen Gallery in Tel Aviv, and the Podbielski Contemporary Gallery in Berlin.
In recent years, she has published the series: “Pandora” (2014-2017), “Wagenburg” (2011- 2014), "Twins - Duo Morality” (2010),”Home for special Children” (2008-2009) and "Near Conscious” (1997-2009).