How do you kill your time on your way to work? Most of us stare at our cell phones, and refuse to make eye contact with others. We just read, chat with others online or play games online. Or maybe we're using the time between stops to do our makeup, catch up on emails, or read a few chapters of a book. However, Dina Alfasi takes a very different approach.
Each day she has to travel hours on buses and trains to get to her engineering job at a hospital in Israel. Rather than look at her cell phone in silence, she uses one very special way to have connection with strangers. It is portraits of the people she meets on public transport every day that she is taking. The paintings catch those quiet and personal moments of people readying themselves for the day ahead. Some people lean their head against the window and go to sleep, some stare into space and have a daydream, and others sit quietly to read their documents or books. Each picture catches one tiny moment in people's lives, ripe with potential for your imagination. It is wonderful for her to look at someone's commute (上下班) and make up an entire story about the rest of their daily existence, from the father travelling with a baby to the woman welcoming a change.
"What inspires me very much are the little moments that happen every day," Dina told My Modern Met. "My work is to tell stories through a single portrait, and it proves that all you need is just to look around and find those magic moments."
