Tel Aviv: here and now

One of the great things about falling in love with a place or a city, is how every one sees it differently. Through a different lens, if you will. We all experience that, but photographers can also capture that so we can all enjoy seeing their favorite places through their eyes.

Great photographers manage to surprise and delight us even when their subject is familiar to us; They insert a sense of wonder and discovery even to what may seem mundane to the unexperienced eye, and make us once more fall in love with the subject. The “subject” in this case is Tel Aviv, and the talented photographer is Sivan Askayo. Over the last half a decade, Sivan Askayo became internationally acclaimed for her series “Intimacy Under the Wires“- a project that started spontaneously “at the vibrant alleyways of Jaffa” as she says, and took her to cities all over the world, capturing the colors and characteristics of each place she traveled through the laundry hanging from the windows. In some photos you can clearly see a window, a wire and hanging clothes, while the others seem more abstract and ethereal.

Sivan Askayo’s favorite places in Tel Aviv

After a decade of calling New York home, Sivan has now made Israel her home base between trips on assignment for magazines such as Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler and AFAR Magazine. This brought on even more vibrant and colorful photos of Sivan’s favorite places in the city that never sleeps, such as the beach, Dizengoff Center and buildings with interesting architecture. When she recently experienced a few cancellations from international magazines that were going to write about Tel Aviv, Sivan decided to do something. “I wanted to show how busy and bustling Tel Aviv is in any situation,” she says. “It’s a truly cosmopolitan city.”

“It’s an open-source multimedia channel depicting real-time footage in Tel Aviv through a multitude of perspectives,” says Sivan, “and we’d love more people from all creative fields to contribute and participate in it.”

Favorite place to eat: Port Said, and Cassis restaurant in Jaffa. (Directions to Port Said on Google Maps.)

Favorite place to shop: I LOVE visiting Elemento store in Jaffa for home decor and inspiration. This is also a location I take people who visit TLV. (Directions on Google Maps.)

Favorite place to hang out: I love King Albert Square. I usually take guests to this area. It feels like being in Tel Aviv in the old days. The Bauhaus architecture in this area is amazing. (Directions on Google Maps.)