Dafy Hagai is an Israeli artist working across several genres including fashion and editorial.
Episode 69: Dafy Hagai came to my attention through seeing her fabulous book Israeli Girls published by Art Paper Editions. Now somewhat elusive on the primary market, I also began searching out other titles published by Hagai, notably from Perimeter Editions in Melbourne Australia. The Melbourne company has since published Hagai titles such as Spring, Golden Showers, and Sunset with more forthcoming.
One of the interest points for me for Hagai’s work comes her brazen and fearless titles and way of working. I adore her work as it pushes boundaries between where art stops and fashion starts and vice versa. Her work is sexy, daring and often times alleviates many of the constraints put on her male counterparts on both sides of both genres. I like the challenge that she presents when making work that at its most base can be describes as “sexy”, when indeed it is much more than that.
I caught up with Dafy in her lockdown moment in Tel Aviv where we discussed the previous books that she has made, but also spoke about her wider career in editorial and fashion. She struck me as bright, honest and obsessive about the medium.
We spoke about many things in her work from nostalgia to place. It was an interesting conversation and I have to emphatically state that fashion photography at present offers such a wide variety of great talent and genuinely experimental platforms that I am sad to say I feel completely out of my bounds to espouse about. It is conversations like this that open my mind to the possibility that art photography in many contexts fails to produce genuine creativity.
