Michal Chelbin: How to Dance the Waltz

'These images were taken in last 5 years (some taken in military boarding schools, some in matadors schools, some in Israel) and explore the connection between "youth" and "uniforms" and dress codes: the place of the young individual in the group that appears to be the same, the heightened traditional roles of boys and girls that comes with the uniforms, the performance that the uniforms force on young people and more. Elements that appear in previous personal works of mine fascinated me into creating this body of work. First and foremost are the contrasts. While living a military life or being a young matador is associated with violence and cruelty, I find many of them to be fragile and weak. While it is considered a manly occupation, I found many of them to be gentle and feminine. I saw it in previous series I created, of wrestlers and prisoners. While we know these people made crimes or acts of violence and cruelty, they are also weak and vulnerable at the same time. This human cont