Kobi Israel was one of the great gay sucess stories of 2003. A photographer  whose work speaks to the gay experience but whose beauty  transcended  its limits.  Jamie Hakim discusses the aftermath of his tremendous year and his new series 'Intimate Strangers' which  he reveals exclusively  to Attitude.  

Standing on the top floor of the National Portrait Gallery Kobi Israel stares meditatively  over  London, the city where this Israeli national has been resident for the past year. Four floors below hangs one of his photographs, '1700'. It shows a picture of a young  man, in much the same pose that  Kobi now adopts, attending  a Tel Aviv  juice stall. One of Kobi's most popular images, it is one of 60 portraits chosen from the 3000 entrants of the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize, the most prestigious of  its  kind in the UK.

Not bad for a photographer whose first solo book, 'Views' was published just over six months ago and should have only been seen by the gay audience it was short-sightedly  marketed to. His publisher Bruno Gmunder is most famous for the sort of 'gay erotica' that finds it's way off the coffee table and under the bed. The fanfare of press that he received was largely confined to gay  rags. His Time Out interview  ran in its 'Gay & Lesbian' as opposed to its Arts section  and his first UK exhibition  took place at London gay bar the Box. If past careers are anything to go by Kobi should be now embarking on a string of club flyers and a book of dodgy male nudes that will never make it out of Old Compton St.

Instead  Kobi Israel is possibly the only  photographer  to have emerged from the gay  scene to have achieved anything approaching mainstream success. This crossover appeal is largely to do with the way he treats  traditional  gay subjects  - the male nude, the soldier, a gay couple in domestic scenes, the same couple in embrace - with the sort of genorisity of  spirit that has woefully bypassed many of his contemporaries. Yes the men are nude but that nudity is about the intimacy of lover's bodies, not just about their cocks. The same aesthetic pervades his most immediately recognisable series - his photographs of Israeli soldiers. Most famous of all is an image of a unit of men relaxing by an army jeep in nothing but briefs so as to escape the desert heat. Rather than go the obvious  route, Kobi uses this scene to expose the chinks in Israeli macho culture  where the tenderness seeps through.

Rather than  resting  on his laurels he continues in this vein, producing his new 'Intimate Strangers' series his most breathtaking  yet.             

What have you been doing since you published Views?

I'm doing new stuff all the time. I move on with my ideas, always starting new projects, going in new directions. What is very important for me to emphasise is that the gay projects, are only one direction my work moves in. It's not the only thing I do. If you really want a sense of the work I've been doing then just look at my website (www.kobi-israel.com). The route my gay work has taken can be seen in the 'Intimate Strangers' project that I have recently begun.  Most of it is set in London, apart from one guy from Brazil. 'Intimate Strangers' started from my latest relationship. When we broke up I moved to London and started with this series. His name is Gadi and you can see him in the pictures. They trail off from work I did in my last book. But then there is other work that doesn't follow those themes: travel pictures, ships in Greece, architecture in Toronto, gay beaches, airports, images of  Las Vegas from the air... This body of work is different to the gay work I've become known for but it deals with the same emotions. All these photos are about a very internal, subconscious feeling.

About what?

I don't want to get into it because I'll only confuse myself. The photos will speak for themselves.  I just do what I feel like and what I'm passionate about. These projects I do, whether its landscapes, people, emotions... whatever surrounds me in my everyday life

Does it annoy you that you've become most famous for your pictures of men, when you shoot a variety of subjects?

I want people to see the wide angle of what I do and who I am. That's the most important thing for me. It's OK that this comes first so my work becomes known but I very much want the other stuff to get outside as well. It will probably take longer but at the end of my journey people will see what I do and it's not just gay work.

Galleries have really begun to pick up on your work haven't they?

I was shortlisted for the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize 2003 which means my image '1700' gets shown at the National Portrait Gallery. Before this the same image was shortlisted for the Association of Photographers open competition in East London and won.  It's now been published in many places and is one of many pictures that has been published in the gay scene. Views also crossed over. It was sold in the Photographer's Gallery and in the Zwemmer media shop in Charing Cross Road.

That's what's interesting about your work. They're homoerotic pictures of men but somehow it's not 'gay' photography. It can crossover. You're get so much gay photography that is confined to the gay scene and yours isn't.

It's not sexual, it's erotic. I'm not aiming my work solely at the gay scene. What I want for my work is this: I want straight people to consume my photography in the same way that gay people consume straight art. For instance the way we look at an image of a man and a woman and enjoy it, I want straight people to look at gay relationships and have the same connection. I'm putting a lot of the work out there with a view to it crossing over from the gay scene. For instance,  '1700' has been a feature on the front page of the Israeli Embassy website. The Jewish community are also making many interviews, it's not just the gay scene. The artwork is paying off and I'm really happy about that.

That's to do with your work. Like I said, there are photographers who just produce gay work and there is nothing more to it. With you there seems to be more going on than simply just gawping at sexy men.

It's still definitely gay but that's not the main question for me. For instance in my book it's more about the emotions between the soldiers, between people. If you reduce all the questions that my work asks and isolate one question that's what the new project, 'Intimate Strangers' is asking. It's an exploration of what intimacy is for me. Whether that's someone I've been in a relationship with for three years, or it can be in a model portfolio, or it can just be a passer-by in the street with whom you have just one second of eye contact  - that can be stronger than just a one night stand. That's initmacy for me. In this case it happens to between to men but it can be between a boy and girl, two girls, two living souls.

Apart from your ex boyfriend what other people appear in Intimate Strangers? For instance who is the Brazilian boy?

He's the only one that wasn't shot in London. Those pictures were taken when I was on a trip to Brazil. Funnily enough he is straight. There was nothing sexual going on between us. With most of the models in the project I never crossed the line and took it somewhere sexual.  Some of the models were straight, some are part of my life; my lover, one stands, other people.

Who's the boy in the bath then?

Julian. That's a French guy I got to know in a bar. He is a lovely guy. I am very attracted to his smile. He saw my website, we got together for a coffee and within two hours we already doing shooting that was very intense. He had this confidence with me and we managed to reach this amazing intimacy and this is why I like these portraits so much. It was a very strong connection .You can see it in the photos.

And it was only after 2 hours?

That was the first meeting and it was such a strong connection that I felt  I just wanted to go back to my apartment. I didn't know what I wanted to do I just knew that I wanted to capture a feeling that I had in that moment.

And you capture that intimacy in your famous shots of Israeli soldiers. A lot of people don't understand that unique intimacy between Israeli soldiers.

It's so strong , it's amazing. This is why it is so confusing when you are gay becasue you don't know where that thin line is between homosocial and homoerotic is. In the Israeli army that connection is even stronger than between a guy and his girlfriend. I don't know if you know this word 'achva'. It's a kind of brotherhood that means you will do whatever is needed for your fellow soldiers. The Israeli army actively build it in order to make a more efficient army. But when you are gay and you are 18 it can be torturous.

Did people know that you were gay in the army?

No. I was very much afraid. Being gay  in the army is not easy decision because it's so macho.

I think it's why those images are so powerful because the Israeli army is so famously macho but you've captured so much tenderness between the soldiers. Maybe that's why it is so sexual?

The bottom line is that you have to behave like a soldier to do your duty.  I didn't want to be a soldier. I don't like bearing arms but it wasn't my decision. Most people can have this fantasy where they glorify us as soldiers. The bottom line  is when you take off your uniform you are 18 years old, very much frightened. You have no control over your life. Between the soldiers we are human beings and we are friends. It's a very strong emotional experience so after 6 months of training you become best friends for life. With gay people you always want more (laughs).

Is that possible in the army?

I didn't because I was playing the rules of the game. I had macho behaviour. I had my motorcycle and I had my pistol. In the army and afterwards - I was actually a flight attendant - but no one actually knew that I was gay. Although I was in an 8 year relationship I never really went out to gay places. When I broke up with my boyfriend of 8 years is when I started doing these pictures of boys. All these photos from Views are from the time of me coming out and are very much part of who I am and my lifestyle.

Those soldiers aren't your unit then?

No no. It's not documentary. I use my firends and their friends and I recreate the scenes at certain locations. None of the photos are real life but recreating the feelings I had throughout my life. Some aren't staged some are.

 The Israeli army is a ploitical hot potato at the moment. A book that beautifies its soldiers must have caused some upset.

I'm not trying to glorify war or talk about Israeli soldiers or the Israeli army.  Not at all - the opposite. I'm talking about the emotion between people who happen to be soldiers because that was part of my life. Peter Tatchell made a comment in Boyz magazine about how Israeli soldeirs are like SS Nazis. I saw him a week after he made that comment when I was at Pride In the Park. I went up to him to introduce myself and congratulated him for all the political work that he had done. I din't mention his comments. I just looked him in the eye so he could see that I wasn't like the SS. I didn't think I needed to say anything. I get so many e mails from Arab people. I get phone calls from Lebanon , Morocco, Algiers, Saudi Arabia. There's this one guy who has translated all the text in my book into Arabic. These people see behind the uniform.

Check out more of Kobi's work at www.kobi-israel.com