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Foto Friday – Seeing Rock n’ Roll

The Artists’ House (Beit HaOmanim) is one of those delightful little treasures you can find in Tel Aviv if you wander around long enough. Tucked away on a side street in the city center, it has been home to the Artist & Sculptors Association since its founding in 1934.

Every month, the Artists’ House holds several exhibitions showcasing members’ works. This month saw the opening of Seeing Rock n’ Roll – the Visual Dimension of Israeli Rock, a display of album art and portraits of Israeli rockers.

Micha Kirshner has created some of Israeli rock’s most enduring images including this one of Rami Fortis, the original bad boy of Israeli rock.

Artist Michal Bendersky included iconic Riot Grrrl band HaMahashefot as part of a series entitled America Is Near. The band is considered one of Israeli rock’s most important; sadly, activity came to an end a short time before the untimely death of lead singer, songwriter and poet Inbal Perlmuter.

Vardi Kahana says that “the photographer who makes pictures of well-known people is actually dealing with images, not with private persons. His magazine portraits result from “the encounter between my idea and the willingness of the person being photographed to cooperate”. Here, in a willing and cooperative mood, is a 1996 portrait of Maor Cohen. Then the lead singer of grunge band Zikney Tzfat, young Cohen is clearly looking ahead to his current solo career as a singer/actor/entertainer.

And here is another Micha Kirshner image of an older, somewhat mellower Fortis with longtime collaborator Berry Sakharof. Well… they’ve none of them mellowed that much.

Seeing Rock n’ Roll runs through July 23 at the Artists’ House, 9 Alharizi Street near Ibn Gvirol, Tel Aviv.

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Foto Friday – 5683 miles by Yael Ben-Zion

5683 miles — the distance between Tel Aviv and New York — is a stretch that Israeli-American photographer Yael Ben-Zion knows well. Born in the US and raised in Israel, she has spent the last ten years traveling the NYC-TLV – TLV-NYC route and considering the differences between the two.

Her first monograph, also called 5683 miles away, presents personal, intimate photographs of places and people as Ben-Zion questions the notion of “normal life” in an emotionally, socially and politically charged place such as Israel…

On one hand, her images of day-to-day life in Israel offer “a poetic reflection on the way people spend their lives…”

On the other hand, they “allude to the complexity of the political climate in Israel, and question its emotional and social consequences…”

Often, the photos tell a story with humor…

And sometimes their titles hint at irony…

Ben-Zion now lives in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in the US and Europe. In 2007, her photograph Crash was selected for the cover of American Photography 23. 5683 miles away (Kehrer, 2010) is her first monograph; it was selected as one of photo-eye’s Best Books of 2010, featured in the PDN Photo Annual 2011, and was also a nominee for the German Photo Book Award 2011. More works by Yael Ben-Zion can be viewed on her website.

Images copyright Yael Ben-Zion. Published by permission.

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Foto Friday – Dance at the Tel Aviv Port

Tel Aviv based Uri Rubinstein is a freelance stage lighting designer and technical director who also doubles as a talented stage photographer. Yesterday, Rubenstein was down at the Tel Aviv port, documenting Rokdim Ba-Namal, a dance happening celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Israeli Choreographers Association (ICA).

About 60 artists and dancers presented excerpts from various works choreographed by ICA members. Despite the heat, Rubinstein says, the event was a party, with all credit due to the dancers, choreographers and all others involved in setting up multiple stages under a broiling sun.

The idea behind Rokdim Ba-Namal is using the existing environment as both backdrop and dance space to create interesting, different and diverse works.

Aside from a few props, the performances took place without sets or lighting, making passersby and fishermen part of the stage scenery…

An airplane heading towards the Sde Dov airport landing strip becomes a dramatic overhead element…

And street lights illuminate the works at dusk…

The audience was also invited to get into the act, joining tribal fusion choreographer Sigal Ziv in a belly-dancing flash mob.

There are plenty more photos by Uri Rubinstein on view at his Facebook page. Video from Rokdim Ba-Namal hasn’t been posted on their YouTube channel so, in the meanwhile, enjoy the sights and sounds from a previous ICA happening, Dance Galil Mountain.

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Foto Friday – Jerusalem lights up – again!

Jerusalem’s third Festival of Light will take place on June 15th to 22nd in the Old City of Jerusalem. Already, the Old City walls are awash with color and patterns as ten international artists begin installing their works — statues, installations, performances and other media. The festival promises to be as good, if not better than last year’s, and that of the year before.

Pitaya of Lyon, France, a design group founded by David Lesort and Arnaud Giroud, have this year created “Light Sap”, an installation that takes as its conceit the question “What would happen if plant sap were light itself?” The answer — or at least an exploration of the question — is found in a field giant flowers made of refractive holographic material and planted in Cardo, in the Jewish Quarter.

OVO by ACT Lighting Design & Ode au Bois, at the Davidson Center, is a multi-sensory art installation. What appears, upon first sight, to be a luminous giant egg is in fact a structure made entirely of recyclable materials, low-energy LEDs and water spray that invites visitors to walk inside and “vanish into a metaphysical mist”. That mist, by the way, uses only about 8 liters per hour. By comparison, a 10 minute shower consumes about 48 liters.

Video and animation artist Joseph Meir Jimmy will highlight the magic inherent in the most beautiful of all Jerusalem’s gates, Damascus Gate, making it an entrance to a magical world of fairies, elves and unicorns. It’s an interesting thought. I can’t even begin to explain how different the gate is by day.

France’s TILT group (lighting designers François Fouilhe and Jean-Baptiste Laude) have invented new kinds of flowers to bloom around Jaffa Gate: the Echinodermus and Pissenlit. The massive 11 meter tall Echinodermus is a tree-like sculpture while the glowing 5 meter wide Pissenlit was inspired by dandelions. Each sculpture is flanked by benches so that visitors can sit for a while and enjoy the view.

The Festival of Light, an initiative of the Jerusalem Development Authority and Ariel Municipal Company, emphasizes the role of light in an urban environment, appealing to the city’s wide range of populations as well as bringing people from all over Israel up to experience Jerusalem at night. Last year, 250,000 visitors of all ages came to view dozens of performances, tours, artists, historical sites and more. For more information, dates, performance times and tour maps, visit their website at: Festival of Light And of course, enjoy images from previous festivals on their YouTube Channel:

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Foto Friday – Jerusalem Day

This coming Wednesday is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. The holiday marks the capital city’s reunification in 1967 after having been divided between Israel and Jordan in 1948.

This Sunday, in honor of Jerusalem Day, the cabinet will hold its weekly meeting at the Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem. At that time, it is expected to pass the 5-year Merom Development Plan that will invest NIS 365 million (NIS 290 plus NIS 75) from the Ministry of Tourism) in raising Jerusalem’s profile as a technology and R&D center, particularly of biotechnology, as well as a strengthening its standing as a tourist destination.

Needless to say, the plan is not without controversy. Everyone has their own idea of what Jerusalem is and should be. For some people, this is Jerusalem…

For others, this is Jerusalem…

And for yet others, this is Jerusalem. Well, Teddy Stadium, at any rate.

And some people still think of Jerusalem as this: the crosswalk at Jaffa Road King George and Strauss Streets.

To download Jerusalem-themed Wallpapers and Screensavers or link to more all-around amazing pictures, visit the excellent Jerusalem Shots website — a celebration of Jerusalem’s past, present and future. In which case, in addition to gorgeous sunset panoramas, expect to see more biotech pics in the very near future.

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