Yaakov Israel – The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey at The Margaret Street Gallery until 25 July 2012

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey

“A few years ago, as I was photographing near the Dead Sea a Palestinian man rode past me on his white donkey and I took a picture of him. It was after having developed this plate that I’ve realized that I had encountered my “Messiah”; it was this chance encounter which brought me to initiate the body of work that carries the name: “The quest for the man on the white donkey”.

The American tradition of the great photographic journeys served as a blueprint for the initial phase of my “quest”: with the definitive difference that in such a small country as Israel the size of the territory in which my hunt was pursued necessarily shaped my proceedings. A condensed experience: what in any other country should have been a photographic journey which spanned over months of continuous traveling was inevitably reduced because no matter what destination I chose it always brought me back home by midnight at the latest.

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

As I found myself passing through the same places over and over again, the personal identity of my project was revealed to me: I had to let go the idea of narrating the physical journey itself and concentrate on the intimate, emotional reactions that these places evoked in me; I focused on trying to understand how I was reacting to the occasional encounters with people and sceneries; and how those people and sceneries appeared to be revealed or lost at the same time, as if they were part of a scene that was ever changing or not changing at all.

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

As my messenger started to reveal the “message”, the search for a deeper understanding of my Country and what defines me as an Israeli became an urge to look for the in-between places, the unexpected situations; suddenly a detail requested my attention as I stood for hours waiting for a meaning to reveal itself: or pushed me away, puzzled. But in the end I had to hold on to it. I could not let go until that detail was made mine, until the elusive and enigmatic found their place in my understanding of what I deemed as authentic, real encounter.

“The quest” is my attempt to relay a personal take on the Israeli reality with a broader sense of belonging to the global human collectivity.

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

In Israel I feel that evidence of the past is strongly intertwined with the marks of the present and the questions about our future, this is why sometimes it is possible to see all past, present and future revealed in front of one’s eyes at the same time.

Part of my identity as Israeli is to question everything, not to take anything for granted: to show the tensions that constantly exist, to convey the truth behind the construction of the reality here and now.

Religious, social aspects filter into everyday life and their meanings are exposed as the journey moves on. Jewish missionaries, lost souls and individuals living on the fringe of society: all blend into this landscape of humanity.”

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In his work he constantly investigates the Israeli identity as perceived through architecture, landscape and the people living in his country. He finds that he is drawn to document places that are from one point of view characteristic of the Israeli landscape but on the other hand are not noticeable to most. “As a person who takes an interest in my surroundings I find that I return again and again to the same places, and these places and their inhabitants have become vital parts of my biography”.

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

His work has been the subject of solo and group shows which were exhibited in museums and galleries in Israel and internationally. solo shows include: ‘The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey’: OSLO 8 Gallery, Basel, 2011.’Habitus’: The Architecture House Gallery, Jaffa, 2007. ‘A Repressed Landscape’: The Open Museum of Photography at Tel-Hai, 2005. ‘Human Portrait’: “Marshim” series at the Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, 2005. Group shows include: ‘EAT’: Emergent Artists Trans-Mediterranean, Palace of Lombardy, Milan, Italy 2012, “CONTENTS: LOVE, HAPPINESS, ANXIETY AND EVERYTHING ELSE”, Critical Mass Top 50, Photolucida Traveling exhibition: PhotoCenter NW (PCNW) | Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, OR | Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco 2012, “The Object of Zionism | Architecture of Statehood in Israel 1948-73”, Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel 2011. “Building a Place”, the P6 Group and Critical Landscape Photography, the Rubin Museum, Tel-Aviv, 2010. “Dreary Structures, Dreamy Structures”, the Ashdod Art Museum, Monart Center, Ashdod 2009. ‘APPROACHES’: First International Meeting of Photography Centres, Centro Andaluz de la Fotografi’a (Caf), Almeria 2008. ‘Jerusalem, a Photographic Installation’: International Meetings of Photography, City Art Gallery, Plovdiv 2003.

Image copyright © Yaakov Israel 2012

His photographs have been featured in national and international Art & Photography magazines and newspapers amongst them in Hotshoe Magazine(UK), OjodePez Magazine (Spain),Ahorn Magazine(US), PRIVATE Magazine (France), de Volkskarant, Observatorium (The Netherlands), A5Magazine, Block Magazine, Haaretz. Interviews about his work appear on the Conscientious website, Urbanautica website and Visura On-line Photography Magazine.

He was selected as one of the three winners of the Conscientious portfolio competition (CPC 2011) and was selected as Critical Mass finalist, Top 50 by Photolucida in 2011.

His photographs are part of the Collections of The Knesset (Israel’s house of parliament), Haifa Museum of Art, The Open Museum of Photography at Tel-Hai, Ashdod Art Museum and Private Collections.

His first Monograph “The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey” was recently published by Schilt Publishing from Amsterdam.

Yaakov Israel was born in 1974 in Jerusalem, Israel where he lives and works.

He graduated in 2002 (B.F.A) with honors from the Department of Photography at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Since 2004 he is has been teaching photography at some of the most prominent art and photography schools and colleges in Israel.

Margaret Street Gallery
63 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8SW

Tel: 0207 323 0140

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Written by Editor