Since the age of ten, Shastel has worked with analog
photography, developing film in a darkroom built inside an old
bus. This early relationship with image-making continues to
inform his practice, particularly his ongoing use of film as a
medium tied to memory, time, and physical process.
His work often centers on youth within natural landscapes,
drawing from personal recollections of growing up in Israel.
These images revisit fragments of lived experience, where
environment and memory become intertwined rather than
separate subjects.
Shastel frequently photographs individuals encountered in
everyday contexts, working with minimal staging and a direct,
observational approach. His subjects appear in unmediated
states, allowing gestures, expressions, and presence to remain
open and unperformed. His practice focuses on moments
where something more subtle emerges: an emotional register
between vulnerability, intimacy, and distance. Across his work,
photography returns to what is already passing, where memory
and observation overlap.
Alon Shastel (born 1991) is a photographer and creative director based between Paris and Tel Aviv