November 4, 2013
The Power of Love, by Tomer Jacobson

The adage is that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Now, two Israeli photographers could set in motion a new proverb based on their current project that takes 10 popular songs and turns them into stunning visual photographs.

It was Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush that kick-started the unique initiative titled “Songs Series.” Photographers and photography fans alike are waiting to see what conceptual photographers Tomer Jacobson and Maxim Golovanov will choose as the 10th and final song in the series.

“They say you should shoot what you love. I love music and I love photography,” Jacobson tells ISRAEL21c. “It’s not the first time someone is taking a photograph based on a song. I think it is the first time people are doing an album concept – 10 songs together.”

Jacobson and Golovanov’s album is seemingly incongruous in sound but united in visual perception. So far it includes Bruce Springsteen’s Lost in the Flood, Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer and After the Gold Rush, Brian Nash’s The Power of Love, Nick Cave & The Bad Seed‘s The Good Son, Elton John’s Where to Now St. Peter?, Lou Reed’s I’m Waiting for the Man, Pearl Jam’s Black, and Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe.

Jacobson says that he and Golovanov spend a lot of time on each song and perform test shoots before each photograph is made. They even videotape the behind-the-scenes action. YouTube viewers can follow the “how-it’s-made” process, which recently was featured on the Fstoppers photo blog.

“That was nice and it brought in some hits on our Springsteen video but it didn’t change my life in any way,” says Jacobson. “If the Metropolitan Museum of Art will call, that could change my life.”

The plan is to finish the project in the coming two months and then seek out a gallery that wants to exhibit the works.

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