No Lifeguard on Duty
In No Lifeguard On Duty, Shoshan focuses on the relative nature of values and how easily our moral codes can be upended. The beach between Tel Aviv and Jaffa exudes, by day, a certain racial and economic exclusivity. But, after midnight, that changes: by the light of the moon, contrasts fade and the beach becomes a space where different cultures and social classes meet and mix. The Jewish city (Tel Aviv) and the Arab city (Jaffa) merge to make one sole space, with no frontiers or horizons. Rules and conventions, superficial reactions of discrimination and rejection — so omnipresent in the bright sunlight — fade on that long journey to the end of the night. Nighttime reveals that which was hidden during the day: love or solitude, sadness or hope.
Shoshan started taking photographs at night in order to escape the Mediterranean summer heatwaves. Around 2001, he discovered the nocturnal world of the beach between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and its regulars. He photographed his subjects, whom he did not know beforehand, between midnight and four in the morning, by the light of the moon and the streetlamps. Exposure time was several minutes for the portraits and half an hour for the landscapes.