Photo exhibit shows ‘shards of war’ in rescheduled event
After it was postponed following the October 7 attacks, the annual photography festival shows life in Israel as it is right now
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
When Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, curator Maya Anner was in the final stages of printing photos for the 11th Photo Is:rael festival, planned for November.
“We couldn’t decide what to do — if we should have it, how to create the right exhibit for the audience,” said Anner.
The reconfigured 11th Photo Is:rael event opened March 27 at Tel Aviv’s Enav Center in Gan HaIr, where it will run through April 30 with works by hundreds of photographers from Israel and around the world, documenting the war in Gaza, Israel’s bereaved, hostages and evacuees, as well as the war in Ukraine, refugees from other lands, and global events that wreak havoc in different countries.
Anner and her team had already asked photographers to share any of their images before October 7, “and many sent ones related to protest and war,” she said.
When they delayed the exhibit until late March, they kept what they already had, and added other works, which Anner called the “the shards of war.”
Those included photos taken by reservist soldiers and foreign photographers of ruined homes in the kibbutz and moshav communities of the south, photos of the evacuated families from the north and south and their current existence in hotels and rented apartments, along with images of refugees in Europe and war scenes from Ukraine.
“It’s very powerful because it’s not a festival that’s unrelated to what’s going on,” said Anner. “It allows culture and art to offer a view of what’s happening all around us.”
The exhibit is set in the center of Tel Aviv, in the plaza of a retail complex on Ibn Gbirol Street, next to the municipality building.
Shoppers stroll in to buy something, and, said Anner, generally stop to look at the stands of photos set along the mall walkways.
One of the most striking sections of the exhibit is in the lower plaza that’s open to the sky — photographs and videos of last year’s demonstrations against the government’s judicial overhaul, with images taken using drones to show the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who went out to protest.
Other portions of the event include an exhibit based on author Eshkol Nevo’s latest novel, “Inside Information”; a solo exhibition by the prize-winning Parisian photographer Stefan Gladieu; and a collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Shalom Foundation presenting images of the Jewish community in Poland before the Holocaust, marking 80 years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The festival is considered the largest photography event in Israel, bringing together professional and amateur photographers, including students from periphery towns who are learning how to depict their lives and experiences through the camera lens.
There are also special events, meetings, tours, panels, lectures and multi-disciplinary art events throughout the festival, with information available on the Photo Is:rael website.
