The abused landscape: the works of young Israeli photographers.

NOTES 1. On the history of landscape photography in Israel see Jochai Rosen, "Landscape Photography in Israel," Contact, Photography and Digital Media, Volume 69 (2004), 12-26 (Hebrew); Guy Raz, Framed Landscapes: A Comment on Local Landscape Photography (Art Gallery, University of Haifa, 2004, Hebrew with a summary in English); Ruth Oren, "Space, Place, Photography: National Identity and Local Landscape Photography, 1945-1963," Spatial Borders and Local Borders (Tel Hai: Open Museum of Photography at Tel Hai Industrial Park, 2006), 164-88. 2. Raz, 7. 3. Yosaif Cohain moved to Israel in 1971. See Eyal Ben-Dov, "Israeli Landscapes, in Black and White, Can Be Political: On the Landscape Photography of Yosaif Cohain," Yosaif Cohain Photographs (Tel Hai: Open Museum of Photography at Tel Hai Industrial Park, 2002), 41-43. Neil Folberg came to Israel in 1976. See Jochai Rosen, "The Landscape Photographs of Neil Folberg," Contact, Photography and Digital Media, Volume 70 (2004), 48-52 (Hebrew). 4. Raz, 14-5. 5. Ben-Dov, 40-1. 6. Yona Fischer, The Rehabilitation of the Nesher Quarry (Jerusalem, 1972, Hebrew). 7. On the heroic aura of the quarry and of stonecutters in Zionism as reflected in art see Gid'on Efrat, "From the Personification of Nature to the Punishing of Nature," Studio, Volume 33, 8 (1992, Hebrew). 8. Raz, 17; Haim Maor, Marked Landscapes: Landscape-Place in Contemporary Israeli Art (Beer Sheba: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2003), 7, 9 (Hebrew). 9. Ben-Dov, 39; Raz, 16. 10. Rona Sela (curator), Cyclopean Walls (exhibition catalog) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1995). For a selection of works by Gilad Ophir see www.giladophir.com. 11. The Disengagement Wall has been the subject of endless articles and photographs in recent years. Its historical background, as well as its cultural and political implications, are beyond the scope of this essay. This issue was dealt with recently on the pages of this magazine: see Adi Louria-Hayon, "Existence and the Other: Borders of Identity in Light of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict," Afterimage, the Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism 34, Nos. 1-2 (2006), 22-26. This essay includes photographs of the Disengagement Wall by Miki Kratzman and Dana Levy and references to other sources on this topic. 12. "Necropolis: Military Spaces," Refusalon, San Francisco, 1998. For the works of Roi Kuper see www.roikuper.com. 13. Maor, 11. 14. Vered Maimon, "Wide Open Spaces of Unidentity," Sharon Ya'ari (exhibition catalog, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999), unpaginated. For a selection of works by Sharon Ya'ari see www.sommergallery.com. 15. Since the late 1990s a few Israeli photographers have taken color landscape photographs, in which they examine in various ways the relation between Israelis and their landscape. Prominent among them are Ori Gersht, Igael Shemtov, and recently Avi Ganor. 16. A striking landscape photographer of this generation not included is Yaakov Israel. His work was presented and discussed recently in a solo exhibition accompanied by a catalog: Naama Haikin (curator), Yaakov Israel: A Repressed Landscape (Tel Hai: Open Museum of Photography at Tel Hai Industrial Park, 2005). 17. For a selection of works by Shai Kremer see www.shaikremer.com. 18. For a selection of works by Noa Ben Shalom see www.noabenshalom.com. 19. For a selection of works by Yair Barak see www.saatchigallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/a/1504.html. For "Getaways" see www.nogagallery.co.il/meirav-ex.html. 20. For a selection of works by Assaf Evron see www.theheder.com. 21. For a selection of works by Gaston Zui Ickowicz see www.gastonickowicz.com. 22. See Sarit Shapira, Routes of Wandering: Nomadism, Journeys and Transitions in Contemporary Israeli Art (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1991). 23. Argentinean born Ickowicz examined the relations between himself, his family, and his friends and the Israeli landscape in his exhibition "Good Air" (Buenos Aires). See Tal Ben Zvi, "On Gaston Zvi Ickowicz's Buenos Aires," Biographies: Six Solo Exhibitions at Hagar Art Gallery, Jaffa (Jaffa: Hagar Art Gallery, 2006), 22-5. 24. Ariel Hirschfeld, "Structured Destruction--On Gaston Ickowicz's Photographs of the Wall and of the Settlements," The Pale (Ra'anana: Even Hoshen Publishers, 2007), 13. 25. Moshe Zuckerman, "On Landscapes and Human Beings," Shai Kremer, Infected Landscapes, forthcoming (quoted from an unpaginated draft).