RACHEL PAPO: Serial No. 3817131

Serial No. 3817131 #85
Photograph (c) Rachel Papo/Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

Serial No. 3817131 #7
Photograph (c) Rachel Papo/Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

Two 2nd Class Boys (Vlad and Vadim), St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007 (#3)
Photograph (c) Rachel Papo/Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

2nd Class Girls, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007 (#6)
Photograph (c) Rachel Papo/Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City

Serial No. 3817131 represents my effort to come to terms with the experiences of being a soldier from the perspective of an adult. My service had been a period of utter loneliness, mixed with apathy and pensiveness, and at the time I was too young to understand it all.

RACHEL PAPO was born in Columbus, Ohio and raised in Israel. She began photographing as a teenager while attending a reknowned fine-arts high school in Haifa. At eighteen she served in the Israeli Air Force as a photographer which inspired her current project titled after her own service number–Serial No. 3817131. Her project Desperately Perfect was shot in the renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Rachel was selected as a finalist in the running to be the 2009 Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year, with Serial No. 3817131, as part of the 2009 International Photography Awards, and is nominated for a Lucie Award. The winner will be revealed at the Lucie Awards gala ceremony, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, on October 19, 2009. Serial No. 3817131 was also selected as a 2nd place winner in the 2009 International Photography Awards, in the People: Culture pro category. Images from Desperately Perfect were selected to appear in the 2009 American Photography 25 anniversary annual book. Rachel will be speaking Oct. 18th at the En Foco and Lucie Foundation ARTIST TALK. Represented by ClampArt Gallery. Rachel Papo Website. Serial No. 3817131 Website.

UPDATE 10/20/09

Congratulations to Rachel Papo on winning The Lucie's 2009 Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year Award.