Both Sides of the Camera
About 99 percent of the people who walk into photographer Rinat Halon Neal’s home studio tell her they hate having their picture taken and insist they’re not photogenic. The talented and engaging Rinat delights in using her camera to prove them wrong.
“I’m able to reflect to them how beautiful they are, thanks to my years of experience and knowledge,” says Rinat. “I do believe we are all beautiful, and my photos are the proof.”
Despite the passion she feels for the art form, photography wasn’t always her focus. A dual citizen of Israel and the United States, she is a former actress who shot to fame on an Israeli television show when she was a teenager. Rinat’s journey from TV star to award-winning professional photographer is a fascinating one.
Born in Israel, Rinat and her parents moved to the United States when she was just three years old. Her mother returned to Israel, but her father stayed in America.
“I ended up being raised between Tel Aviv and Columbus, Ohio, which could not be more different from each other,” Rinat says. “That contributed a lot to who I am today, just being exposed to very different cultures.”
When Rinat was 16 and living with her mom in Israel, she longed to be a performer and was cast in an original, scripted TV show that became a huge hit with young audiences (see sidebar). Even now, 30 years later, the show has a devoted fan base that keeps its memory alive on social media.
As was required of her, Rinat left the wildly popular show when she turned 18 to fulfill her mandatory military service in Israel. After completing basic training, she auditioned for and was chosen to perform with a traveling group that entertains soldiers all across the country – an Israeli version of America’s USO shows. When her military service ended after two years, Rinat continued performing in her native country with roles in movies and commercials. But in her mid-20s, she left the acting world behind to attend college in the United States, enrolling at Ohio State University.
Like many college freshmen, the young woman didn’t really know what she wanted her major to be. At first, she considered becoming an engineer like her father. But all the required classes were full when she registered, so Rinat signed up for a few electives including a photography course. Her mother enjoyed photography, so Rinat figured that maybe she would, too. She wasn’t expecting to completely click with it, though.
“The first time I held the camera in my hands, all I could think was, ‘I have got to understand how this thing creates art,’” Rinat says. “And really, I’m still learning, and it’s been 25 years.”
Rinat graduated with a personalized honors degree in visual merchandising and photography. In 2002, she moved to Central Florida to escape Ohio’s cold weather and worked first as a visual merchandiser for a furniture store company and then as the in-house photographer for the Walt Disney World Imagineering department.
Later, she returned to Israel and lived there and in Moscow for a few years, exhibiting her fine art photography and working as a freelance photographer for American, Israeli, and Russian magazines. Rinat’s many photoshoots have taken her to interesting and diverse locales, from the basement of the Kremlin in Moscow to the stomping grounds of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team to an elephant rescue ranch in Florida.
She has shot portraits of celebrities and government officials, captured treasured memories at countless weddings, and photographed everything from architecture to high fashion. In 2013, Rinat moved back to Central Florida where she now lives with her husband, Mike Neal.
Rinat is a proud member of the Professional Photographers of America and the Florida Professional Photographers, and she is a photography teacher, author, and speaker. She supports several nonprofit organizations either by offering her services pro bono or donating a portion of the proceeds from her classes. The groups Rinat champions include The Jewish Pavilion, the Heart Gallery, and IDignity.
Although Rinat traded a professional life in front of the camera for one behind it, she still steps into the spotlight on occasion for fun. She is the vocalist for Heart & Soul, a jazz duo that has entertained at restaurants, weddings, birthday parties, and corporate events throughout Central Florida. Performances have been on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, but she and her musical partner, jazz guitarist Sean Williams, hope to resume live shows soon. And as for her photography career, Rinat intends to keep showing others that they are, indeed, beautiful.
“I never thought I was going to be a photographer, never in a million years, but my life has turned out great,” she says. “Photography really is my pride and joy, my honor, my baby. I love the fact that I am able to create art like this and make people happy. That means the world to me.”
She’s a Star
Long before Rinat Halon Neal became a professional photographer, she found fame as a young singer-actress on a blockbuster Israeli television show.
While living in Israel, Rinat auditioned for and was selected to be part of the Youth of Tel Aviv, a popular entertainment troupe that performed a song every week on a TV show that was similar to America’s Saturday Night Live. The high-profile group of kids also traveled around the country performing live shows.
At her first meeting as a new member, 16-year-old Rinat was stunned to learn the group’s TV screen time was about to grow exponentially because the kids had been given their very own show. (Rinat tells everyone who asks that the show is best described as a cross between the American TV programs Glee and Saved by the Bell.)
Rinat appeared on the show’s first and second seasons, which aired in 1989 and 1990. The first season, titled Ha-Hofesh Ha’Acharon (The Last Summer) was loosely based on the ultimate 1980s teen movie, The Breakfast Club. The second season, Lo Kolel Sherut (Service Not Included), was set in a restaurant staffed by the show’s young characters.
The original, scripted series was the first Hebrew-speaking TV show that dealt with teenage concerns and problems, Rinat says, and audiences couldn’t get enough of its fresh approach. The teens rehearsed during the week after school and filmed episodes on the weekends.
“All the issues that we were talking about back then are still relevant today,” she says. “In one episode, my character – also named Rinat – wanted to get a nose job, and in another episode, she thought she was pregnant. We touched on really big issues. And then we would all break into a song. When the show came out, it just exploded with fans and insanity. We were absolutely not ready for it. It was shocking for all of us.”
The close-knit cast members have stayed in touch over the years and did a Zoom reunion in 2020 for their diehard devotees, who religiously rewatch old episodes and pay tribute to the show with a Facebook fan page. The show was such a big deal during its heyday, Rinat says, that the Zoom reunion made the Israeli news. Rinat and most of the other cast members have since moved on to different careers, but a few are still in show business.
“We’re just so grateful for being able to have that amazing experience,” Rinat says. “It was so naïve and beautiful. We really just did it from the heart. Our fans, to this day, say how important what we did was for them and their childhood, and what a positive influence all that was.”