Exhibitions

The photographs and the texts presented in the exhibition were inspired by dialogues with homeless people in Tel Aviv. As a mutual acquaintance was established I asked their consent to be photographed. One photo would be a portrait and the other will be of their ‘home’. I wrote down what they said in my notebook. The dialogue began before the October war and continued in the first days of the war when missiles were shot toward Tel Aviv and an atmosphere of actual danger and uncertainty pervaded the streets.

While working on the previous series of photographs, the one which brought about this series, it was evident to me that people walking by the homeless avoided eye contact with them. Children on the other hand, do tend to look directly at them. I wandered: Is this avoidance part of an attempt to disregard the actuality of social and political phenomena? Would we rather our children didn’t acknowledge those who suffer because we want to protect them or because of our own inhibitions?

The photographs currently  exhibited aspire to do just that- look them in the eye, just as children do.

Throughout these encounters I realized these homeless people are tormented but also, extremely resilient. This enables them to survive the streets despite hardship and suffering. Each one of them has his own coping strategy in face of trouble. In these photographs and texts I tried to give expression to these characteristics.

Thank you to Daniel Chichic for his guidance at the Tel Aviv Photography Club.