Foto Friday – Inspecting the Pipeline with Chaim Daon
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, Profiles, coexistence
Chaim Daon is a welding inspector working on one of the country’s most important energy infrastructure projects: the natural gas pipeline. When complete, the gas pipeline – an extension of the El-Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline from Egypt to Israel, which became operational in 2008 – will be able to transport up to 7 billion cubic meters per year, relieve some of our industries’ dependence on oil, help clean the atmosphere and give additional economic weight to our cold peace with Egypt.
The project, under construction for several years now, comprises hundreds of kilometers of pipeline with joins all along the way, so the work done by welding inspectors like Daon and his colleagues is crucial for keeping pipes intact and leaks at bay.
Daon – or Captain Caveman as he’s known by the Holyland Hash House Harriers, an international drinking and running disorganization (to which I also belong) – allows us a peek at what’s going on just a few meters below the surface…
The tender to build the pipeline was won by a foreign multinational and the teams working on the project come from all over the globe. They work by day…
The pipeline is intended to serve Israel’s major industries, chiefly Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), which is in the process of converting its oil-driven power stations to natural gas. IEC noted in its most recent Environmental Report that since the introduction of natural gas in 2004, a carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 11%. More information about the Gas Market Law and gas reform in Israel is available at the Ministry of National Infrastructures website.
Foto Friday – Reli Avrahami’s “Diary”
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Profiles, Travel
Beer Sheva-born Reli Avrahami is one of Israel’s premiere magazine photographers. A new exhibition of her work, “Diary”, will open next week at the Hadassah College in Jerusalem, where she once studied and is now a lecturer.
Avrahami has worked as a freelance portrait photographer since 1986, shooting celebrities, artists and politicians for Israel’s main newspapers and weekend supplements including “Maariv”, “Yediot Aharonot” and “Haaretz” where she is best known for her long-running series of Israeli family portraits.
In “Diary”, Avrahami invites viewers to look in on three generations of her own family: celebrations and tragedies, weddings and funerals, everyday life and unique occasions.
Her daughter – Botticelli curls cascading down her shoulders – en route to a Scout trip…
…the morning of her son’s induction into the IDF…
…her mother, fast asleep in a Netherlands zimmer motel…
or a “Girls Night In” with her sisters and mother.

“Diary” opens at 6:00pm, November 5, 2009 at the Hadassah College, 37 HaNeviim Street, Jerusalem.
Foto Friday – Robert Gorsoun sees Israel’s beauty
Robert Gorsoun is a photographer who takes pictures for the love of it. Wherever he travels, he snaps pictures and Israel is beautiful through his lens…
…the Banias in Israel’s north…

…a rainbow, captured in mid-storm over the Herzliya beach…

…a field of flowers by the roadside, stretching on forever…

…a water lily…

…or flowering cacti at the Utopia Orchid Park…

…and on through to the crater at Mizpe Ramon.

More photos by Gorsoun — including some spectacular panoramas that don’t fit on an Israelity page but should be seen — are posted on Panoramio.
Foto Friday – The Israel Photography Exhibition 2
POV, the Israeli Photography Exhibition at Hatachana, the Old Train Station in Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, came out swinging earlier this month with individual retrospectives of works by well-known Israeli photographers. Additionally, there were also collective exhibitions on view at Hatachana — well worth visiting — and on YouTube. These include works by leading photographers, yet-unknowns and news agencies, the unsung heroes of photography in the field.
Last Summer
Israel Sun photo agency
Tomorrow’s Photographers
Foto Friday – The Israel Photography Exhibition
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Pop Culture
POV, a retrospective of new works by Israel’s leading photographers/curators took place this past week at Tel Aviv’s newest landmark, the refurbished old train station structure in Neve Tzedek (pictured left). For those who missed the show (and that includes your humble scribe), POV has provided video portfolios for the group, as well as individual photographers. A portion of these works are presented in this Foto Friday column, with more to follow. Enjoy! And for those who can’t wait, visit the POV website and YouTube channel.
Show Portfolio
Moshe Shay
Yuval Tebol
David Perlov
Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Religion, Travel, coexistence
The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…

© RomKri
…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…

© monti_clif
…dotting the urban landscape.

© Pes & Lev
The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…

© RomKri
…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…

© monti_clif
…and from all over the world!

© monti_clif
Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.
Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!
Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.
Foto Friday – Viviana Tagar views Tel Aviv
“Tel Aviv is the city of light and shadows,” says photographer Viviana Tagar. “I decided to focus on the light.” Tagar, whose new book “Tel Aviv One” was recently published, wanted to redress the imbalance in how Tel Aviv is perceived abroad. “People see Tel Aviv as a city of war and despair… it was important to me to portray and present another Tel Aviv for them.” Tagar, a psychotherapist by trade, says that in her daily work she’s encountered many of the painful sides of life in Israel’s major city. “Tel Aviv has many dark aspects. It could be that because I worked with terror attack survivors and other people who lived in shadow, it was important for me to show the sides that are illuminated.”
Tagar’s book, Tel Aviv One, is available at Steimatzky and Tzomet Sfarim bookstores.
Foto Friday – Apples & Honey
One of the more lovely traditions of Rosh Hashana is eating apples dipped honey to symbolize our hopes for a sweet new year. At this season, you start seeing apples and honey everywhere. Body artist Flora certainly does…

Dorit “Dot” Malin, a talented architectural and stage lighting designer, created this lovely image incorporating dance and light.

Israel’s Fruit Production and Marketing Board has chosen to market apples the old-fashioned way…

And there are a slew of apple-themed New Year’s animations on YouTube! A small selection follows. Enjoy! And a healthy, happy and prosperous Shana Tova to all.
Picking apples for New Year at Kibbutz Malkiya
Apples and Honey
Shana Tova – the Apple’s Perspective
Shana Tova – Another Apple
Foto Friday – Oded Dayan – Bird Migration Across the Hula
The days are getting shorter and bird migration across the Rift Valley — otherwise known as our little corner of the Middle East — is at its height.

Israel is something of a paradise for birdwatchers, with 500 million birds migrating south from Europe to warmer climates in Asia and Africa each fall. The Israel Ornithology Center, which operates three bird watching centers, has recorded more than 540 different species of birds in Israel at various seasons in the year.

Photographer Oded Dayan, who works with the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – JNF, produced this series of images documenting Lake Agmon, the heart of the re-flooded Hula Valley in Northern Israel.

Agmon is one of the best-known birding centers with a developed tourist infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Tourism, “approximately 35,000 cranes fill the fields and wetlands during the fall migration, with about 25,000 staying for the winter.”

“Visitors can take advantage of the camouflaged bird observation points and choose to tour the area on foot, by bicycle, golf cart, safari wagon or train. This is also a center for bird research and a station for bird ringing.”

More information about Lake Agmon can be found on the KKL-JNF website, or on the Ministry of Tourism website. And of course, ISRAEL21c has reported extensively on the rehabilitation of the now-flourishing Hula Valley.
Foto Friday – Gil Lavi’s Soldiers in White
Gil Lavi is a world-class commercial photographer, portraitist and brand image consultant. He also has a keen eye for documentary photography, as seen in his series, “Soldiers in White” which explores the world of Israel’s emergency medical technicians at Magen David Adom.
The living quarters where sleep can be interrupted in a moment…
Lavi also takes special note of the relationship between religious and secular EMTs…
… and the camaraderie between male and female, young and old.
MDA’s heroic efforts in bringing medical services to all sides under the most trying circumstances have been well-reported by ISRAEL21c , but Lavi’s is a more intimate look. It’s a far cry from the high gloss commercial work for which he is famous — Lavi was named one of the 300 most influential Israelis under 40 for 2009 by Forbes magazine — but ties in to his photographic roots: during his army service, he was a photographer for the Ground Forces Command and then head of the IDF Still Photography Department. In fact, darkroom fluid flows in his veins: his father is renowned photographer Moshe Lavi (more about him, hopefully, on another Friday).
Other works by Gil Lavi can be found on his website at http://portfolio.gillavi.com/



























