I’ve been trying my hands at Macro photography since 2018 when I got a set of Macro Extensions and well, I hope to finally get it someday but that isn’t the case with Israeli Industrial Photographer; Lior Glaichman who during the lock-down started trying his hands at Macro photography, creating the serial ‘So Far, So Very Close” that got global acknowledgement. We started communicating and his views on photography are quite astounding. A Professional Photographer in every sense of the word, he tells us his story and what inspires him… Do Enjoy.
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- Kindly Introduce Yourself
My name is Lior Glaichman, I am married with two sons. I am an industrial photographer, as well as a photography course and workshop instructor, and a personal photography mentor. I live in Northern Israel.
After completing my photography and education studies in 2009, I started a product photography business and it all started rolling from there in my professional life. I gathered valuable experience in working with varied product types, as well as with different types of customers, and also in marketing and pricing. One early project that comes to mind is a shoot I did with an incredible lighting designer, of beautiful light fixtures.
In 2011, I began employment as in-house photographer for a large international corporation that develops and produces metalworking products. My work encompasses different aspects of photography and projects – photos of chip breaking tools in action, pack shots, technical macro, video shoots with high speed cameras, research and marketing, important event documentation, and even aerial photography – once from the company helicopter and nowadays using a drone. The challenges are daily and interesting.
I also teach a photography basics course. The satisfaction when a student grins at you after understanding the combination of camera parameters and “correct” exposure is terrific and provides great motivation to continue teaching as well as to learn from the students and their creativity.
- How was growing up like?
I grew up in a beach town in Northern Israel. I started to understand the camera already as a child, when I would see my father’s ‘ZORKI’ camera. My creative interests as a child were mainly drawing with pencils. At some stage in my adolescence, I rediscovered photography and, during my service in the Navy, I taught myself photography techniques from books and experimented with making pictures in every spare moment.
- What’s your educational background?
I have a BA in art and photography studies, with an education certificate. My decision to learn photography and art at the art academy was simple – I knew that I was interested in pursuing a career in professional photography and so I decided to go with what I lived and loved as a profession.
My father has always said that “if you work in what you love – you’ve already succeeded!”
For four years I studied the visual language of photography, light and creative thinking, personal expression, technology, and I took advantage of all the creative freedom as a photography student. After graduating, I opened a business in product and architecture photography, and things began to flow and develop.
- What type of Photography do you do?
My photography activities can be divided into three types:
- Industrial and corporate photography for the company where I work.
- Product photography for customers
- Conceptual art photography on a personal level, related to deceptive architecture, dance, landscape and, in recent months, studio macro photography of insects. My own conceptual perspective in photography is that basically a photo is reliable but not objective. I am convinced that a photograph is always subjective, and therefore, in many cases during the process there are unique personal choices. The ability of the camera to observe reality, to present everything as a photographed truth, challenges me to examine and present a different fact in front of the viewer’s eyes.
- Where/Who do you draw your inspiration from?
I draw inspiration from photographers like Andreas Gursky, Lewis Baltz, Robert Frank, Candida Hofer, and Karl Taylor. I am also inspired from life itself, for example the color and light on walls and streets, light fixtures along long corridors, tall buildings lit up in a dark street and, most of all, the last of the day’s sunbeams gently resting on the faces of my children at twilight. And as I said earlier, I am always learning from my course’s students.
- So far what has been your highest point as a photographer?
The highest point was actually recently, when a photography series of mine called ‘So far, so very close’ was published by an international photography website and shown across the world. The project focused on macro photography of insects and combined my love of these amazing insects together with my professional experience. The publication of the article further confirmed my gut feeling that I can do what I love and succeed in my own quiet way.
- What challenges do you face and what steps do you take in overcoming these challenges?
When considering the photography of a product, the most important thing for me is to learn and understand the product that I am photographing. It is very important to understand its characteristics and both its outstanding and hidden advantages before positioning the lens across from the product. I sit and study the products before every photography set.
I believe that the hardest thing is to remain true to yourself along the way. This days, there are so many influences on the internet, so you have to acknowledge what you are doing and why. This time of visual media everywhere is inspiring, but it can also be confusing and misleading.
- Any last words?
For me, photography is a way of expression and life. Making pictures sets me in a quiet dimension, far away from the noisy, daily reality. I enjoy creating and making an image, the silence just before pressing the shutter and the never-ending search for light.
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Lior Glaichman is an Israeli Industrial Photographer and Educator. You can connect with him via his website here or follow him on Instagram here.
