The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey by Yaakov Israel

Yaakov Israel The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey

2

Silwan, 2007

2

Silwan, 2007

For Maya and Emanuel

Yaakov Israel: Back to the Roots In the Beginning, we are told, all was

those who had designs or counter-designs on the area, whether Philistines,

Darkness, and then G_D gave the word and breathed Light into the World. This

Jews, Romans, Christians, Ottomans, Zionists, Arab nationalists, etc. As such,

could, of course, also be the Genesis of a metaphor for photography, an in-

the area called Israel, or Palestine, for that matter, has been a subject of de-

vented word meaning “writing with light” with roots in classical Greek. Just

bate for more than two thousand years. Even before the establishment of the

substitute Niépce, Daguerre, Fox Talbot, or Kodak, for the word that embodied

State of Israel in 1948, the definition of Israel and an Israeli identity, whether

photography…

construed in secular, religious, or geographical terms, has been the subject

Yet, however defined, photography is only an act of representation, whether

not just of wars but also of intense internal debate not merely between Jews

optical-chemical or, nowadays, optical-electrical, to wit: digital. The act and

and Arabs but also between Jews and Jews. It has been a debate, between

process of representation that we call photography is only a form of giving

peoples, through their governments, and over land, defined by facts on the

name and shape to things. That the Torah, Bible, and Koran all make the repre-

ground and their interpretation.

sentation of things through “graven images” – often another way of describ-

It is not possible to imagine a photographer photographing modern-day Israel

ing photography – problematic, to say the least, adds yet another level of

with a more fraught name than the young Israeli photographer, Yaakov Israel.

challenge to photographic representation of whatever is before the camera or

Not only does his first name ring of the grandson of Abraham who himself

of facts on the ground. In no other region is this more fraught than the grounds

offered his son in sacrifice to God, but it speaks of the famous “wrestling with

of what have been called the Holy Lands or what the secularists and mapmak-

the angel” scene in Genesis where, after a draw, Yaakov is renamed Israel

ers based in London and Paris called the Middle East and especially the region

before his descendants are driven into exile in Egypt.

called Palestine and Israel from the time of their plans to take the area away from the Ottoman Empire from the 19th century onward.

Yaakov Israel. Who better to examine Israeli identity in the 21st century than

That this area has been defined, contested, and re-defined throughout the mil-

an Israeli photographer whose name is based on questioning God and iden-

lennia was a matter, not just of who was living there on the land, but also of

tity? Identity of place and self in one person.

For Maya and Emanuel

Yaakov Israel: Back to the Roots In the Beginning, we are told, all was

those who had designs or counter-designs on the area, whether Philistines,

Darkness, and then G_D gave the word and breathed Light into the World. This

Jews, Romans, Christians, Ottomans, Zionists, Arab nationalists, etc. As such,

could, of course, also be the Genesis of a metaphor for photography, an in-

the area called Israel, or Palestine, for that matter, has been a subject of de-

vented word meaning “writing with light” with roots in classical Greek. Just

bate for more than two thousand years. Even before the establishment of the

substitute Niépce, Daguerre, Fox Talbot, or Kodak, for the word that embodied

State of Israel in 1948, the definition of Israel and an Israeli identity, whether

photography…

construed in secular, religious, or geographical terms, has been the subject

Yet, however defined, photography is only an act of representation, whether

not just of wars but also of intense internal debate not merely between Jews

optical-chemical or, nowadays, optical-electrical, to wit: digital. The act and

and Arabs but also between Jews and Jews. It has been a debate, between

process of representation that we call photography is only a form of giving

peoples, through their governments, and over land, defined by facts on the

name and shape to things. That the Torah, Bible, and Koran all make the repre-

ground and their interpretation.

sentation of things through “graven images” – often another way of describ-

It is not possible to imagine a photographer photographing modern-day Israel

ing photography – problematic, to say the least, adds yet another level of

with a more fraught name than the young Israeli photographer, Yaakov Israel.

challenge to photographic representation of whatever is before the camera or

Not only does his first name ring of the grandson of Abraham who himself

of facts on the ground. In no other region is this more fraught than the grounds

offered his son in sacrifice to God, but it speaks of the famous “wrestling with

of what have been called the Holy Lands or what the secularists and mapmak-

the angel” scene in Genesis where, after a draw, Yaakov is renamed Israel

ers based in London and Paris called the Middle East and especially the region

before his descendants are driven into exile in Egypt.

called Palestine and Israel from the time of their plans to take the area away from the Ottoman Empire from the 19th century onward.

Yaakov Israel. Who better to examine Israeli identity in the 21st century than

That this area has been defined, contested, and re-defined throughout the mil-

an Israeli photographer whose name is based on questioning God and iden-

lennia was a matter, not just of who was living there on the land, but also of

tity? Identity of place and self in one person.

6

The photographs in this collection, “The Quest for the Man on the White

This act of discovery and testing was not, and could not be, a contiguous

through massive immigration from the former Soviet Union, from Ethiopia,

required to stand still for several minutes while the picture is composed and

Donkey”, speak not just to the parable of the man on the white donkey, a

effort. Yaakov is a teacher in various Art and Photography schools. He has a

and from elsewhere, the very face of Israel has changed, and with it have

made. The payoff, photographically, is a negative of great sensitivity that

disguised Messiah who shall lead the believers into salvation, an actual

family. It is simply not possible for him to take a year or more off and me-

come yet more questions of what it means to be Israeli.

“sees” more than the human eye can take in at one time. The photographs

man, a Palestinian farmer, but also of a search into contemporary Israeli

thodically circumnavigate his country. Rather, he took innumerable trips,

identity and into Yaakov Israel himself.

first here, then there, and so he built up his composite picture while always

Thus, Yaakov moved to a more metaphorical search into the body of modern

that which is normally overlooked can be found and interpreted.

As such, Yaakov Israel’s photographs are an exploration of modern Israel in

returning home to Jerusalem. In this he resembles the narrator of Laurence

Israel through an exploration of the landscape and a deeper quest to repre-

Yaakov describes the result of this process, “It is through the extreme and

its many facets and contradictions and into Yaakov’s photographic search for

Sterne’s legendary novel, Tristram Shandy – a book also about birth and

sent the face of the State both in the physical or psychological term and the

detailed rendition of the 8 x 10 inch camera format, where the peculiar behind

himself. [Henceforth, I shall refer to the photographer as Yaakov and to the

identity, among a hundred other things – who continually searches, re-

face of the nation and the members of its body politic.

the ordinary is revealed, that the stories of the day-by-day Israeli landscape

country as Israel.]

searches, tells anecdotes, and diverges from a central narrative. Yet as Frie-

A note about Yaakov’s photographic technique is in order to give depth to his

are assembled”.

As this project commenced, it had another form, that of the road trip ex-

drich Nietzsche pointed out, Sterne has a “squirrel-soul” that leaps from

photographic quest. First and foremost, Yaakov works with an 8 x 10 or a 4 x

Such photography also harkens back to the mystical, to the alchemical, ways

ploring Israel’s borders with Syria, Egypt, and especially the Occupied Ter-

twig to twig yet always remains on the same tree with its same roots de-

5, large-format camera that any 19th century explorer of the Holy Land would

of storytelling. The process produces its own pace and its own rituals. It de-

ritories of the West Bank and around the Gaza Strip. Like the epic voyages

scending from its own proper trunk. In this, Yaakov’s explorations of the

not just recognize but also be able to use. The large camera with its protrud-

mands that the photographer submit to the regime of optics, chemistry, and

of Jack Kerouac, Robert Frank, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfield, Yaakov’s

furthest reaches, the most distant twigs as it were, of Israel remain firmly

ing lens is mounted on a tripod. The image of the subject before the camera

time. It makes for a different experience than normal photography, especially

road trips began as a search for the heart and soul of a contry.

grounded in his very personal exploration of self and space.

is projected inverted onto a ground glass that comprises the viewfinder. The

in the shimmering heat of an afternoon in the desert.

There was, however, an implicit role that Yaakov felt the need to undertake:

Yaakov’s exploration of what is within Israel, its land, its soul, its people,

photographer places his head beneath a dark cloth in order to see the image,

“The day the man on the white donkey rode past me was the changing point

the testing of the limits of Israel. By skirting the border in the course of his

obviously became an exploration, an inner voyage into what it means to be

compose the frame, and, ultimately, to take the picture. It is a time-consum-

in the way I understood my subject and the aspects that could emphasize it.

quest, Yaakov consciously walked and drove along the frontier of Israel, the

Israeli today in the early 21st century, and what it means to be Yaakov Isra-

ing, painstaking process that requires much precision and patience. It is in no

It was a very hot day, around 45 degrees Celsius in the Judean Desert. I was

epidermis of what is the territory of Israel. Consciously or not, he was, in

el, photographer.

way equivalent to the point and shoot photography of those who sneak pic-

already photographing for over 5 hours when I saw a man on a white donkey

effect, testing the limits of his own being as an Israeli and thus what it

In Israel, in Yaakov, the landscape is intimately bound up with identity, both

tures from unsuspecting subjects. When people are photographed, the pro-

slowly come out of the heat waves heading my way. I carried the camera into

means to be Israeli.

national and personal. As Israel has changed in the past 20-odd years

cess requires the willing participation of those photographed, and who are

the shade of a tree and waited for him to come closer. It took about 15 min-

produced are, literally, incredible in their fine details, and for those who seek,

6

The photographs in this collection, “The Quest for the Man on the White

This act of discovery and testing was not, and could not be, a contiguous

through massive immigration from the former Soviet Union, from Ethiopia,

required to stand still for several minutes while the picture is composed and

Donkey”, speak not just to the parable of the man on the white donkey, a

effort. Yaakov is a teacher in various Art and Photography schools. He has a

and from elsewhere, the very face of Israel has changed, and with it have

made. The payoff, photographically, is a negative of great sensitivity that

disguised Messiah who shall lead the believers into salvation, an actual

family. It is simply not possible for him to take a year or more off and me-

come yet more questions of what it means to be Israeli.

“sees” more than the human eye can take in at one time. The photographs

man, a Palestinian farmer, but also of a search into contemporary Israeli

thodically circumnavigate his country. Rather, he took innumerable trips,

identity and into Yaakov Israel himself.

first here, then there, and so he built up his composite picture while always

Thus, Yaakov moved to a more metaphorical search into the body of modern

that which is normally overlooked can be found and interpreted.

As such, Yaakov Israel’s photographs are an exploration of modern Israel in

returning home to Jerusalem. In this he resembles the narrator of Laurence

Israel through an exploration of the landscape and a deeper quest to repre-

Yaakov describes the result of this process, “It is through the extreme and

its many facets and contradictions and into Yaakov’s photographic search for

Sterne’s legendary novel, Tristram Shandy – a book also about birth and

sent the face of the State both in the physical or psychological term and the

detailed rendition of the 8 x 10 inch camera format, where the peculiar behind

himself. [Henceforth, I shall refer to the photographer as Yaakov and to the

identity, among a hundred other things – who continually searches, re-

face of the nation and the members of its body politic.

the ordinary is revealed, that the stories of the day-by-day Israeli landscape

country as Israel.]

searches, tells anecdotes, and diverges from a central narrative. Yet as Frie-

A note about Yaakov’s photographic technique is in order to give depth to his

are assembled”.

As this project commenced, it had another form, that of the road trip ex-

drich Nietzsche pointed out, Sterne has a “squirrel-soul” that leaps from

photographic quest. First and foremost, Yaakov works with an 8 x 10 or a 4 x

Such photography also harkens back to the mystical, to the alchemical, ways

ploring Israel’s borders with Syria, Egypt, and especially the Occupied Ter-

twig to twig yet always remains on the same tree with its same roots de-

5, large-format camera that any 19th century explorer of the Holy Land would

of storytelling. The process produces its own pace and its own rituals. It de-

ritories of the West Bank and around the Gaza Strip. Like the epic voyages

scending from its own proper trunk. In this, Yaakov’s explorations of the

not just recognize but also be able to use. The large camera with its protrud-

mands that the photographer submit to the regime of optics, chemistry, and

of Jack Kerouac, Robert Frank, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfield, Yaakov’s

furthest reaches, the most distant twigs as it were, of Israel remain firmly

ing lens is mounted on a tripod. The image of the subject before the camera

time. It makes for a different experience than normal photography, especially

road trips began as a search for the heart and soul of a contry.

grounded in his very personal exploration of self and space.

is projected inverted onto a ground glass that comprises the viewfinder. The

in the shimmering heat of an afternoon in the desert.

There was, however, an implicit role that Yaakov felt the need to undertake:

Yaakov’s exploration of what is within Israel, its land, its soul, its people,

photographer places his head beneath a dark cloth in order to see the image,

“The day the man on the white donkey rode past me was the changing point

the testing of the limits of Israel. By skirting the border in the course of his

obviously became an exploration, an inner voyage into what it means to be

compose the frame, and, ultimately, to take the picture. It is a time-consum-

in the way I understood my subject and the aspects that could emphasize it.

quest, Yaakov consciously walked and drove along the frontier of Israel, the

Israeli today in the early 21st century, and what it means to be Yaakov Isra-

ing, painstaking process that requires much precision and patience. It is in no

It was a very hot day, around 45 degrees Celsius in the Judean Desert. I was

epidermis of what is the territory of Israel. Consciously or not, he was, in

el, photographer.

way equivalent to the point and shoot photography of those who sneak pic-

already photographing for over 5 hours when I saw a man on a white donkey

effect, testing the limits of his own being as an Israeli and thus what it

In Israel, in Yaakov, the landscape is intimately bound up with identity, both

tures from unsuspecting subjects. When people are photographed, the pro-

slowly come out of the heat waves heading my way. I carried the camera into

means to be Israeli.

national and personal. As Israel has changed in the past 20-odd years

cess requires the willing participation of those photographed, and who are

the shade of a tree and waited for him to come closer. It took about 15 min-

produced are, literally, incredible in their fine details, and for those who seek,

8

utes for him to reach me. As I waited, the thought that I was hallucinating or

describes to the aged Kublai Khan the stories of the cities of his empire, an

episode with its portal into another time… Another gate looks onto a land-

the fragments of abandoned water parks, dead trees, yet more barbed wire,

suffering from sunstroke crossed my mind, but I stood my ground. He stopped

empire that has grown too large for one man, even one as powerful as the

scape filled with… nothing. Perhaps it is the site of an abandoned resort, or

roads leading to nowhere, become accidental sculptures. History is embedded

his donkey 2 metres from me and we greeted each other. The whole encounter

Great Khan, to envisage let alone comprehend.

not. As Yaakov describes his thoughts, “Israel is a place so very much of its

in the landscape as much as the present. The timeless quality of Yaakov’s pic-

had a biblical feel to it. In the Jewish tradition the Messiah is supposed to ar-

Just as Calvino’s Marco Polo describes the impossibly fantastical cities of the

time and totally out of time”.

tures is nonetheless very timely and contemporary. It is impossible not to see

rive on a white donkey and here in the middle of nowhere the white donkey

Khan’s realm, he remarks, upon questioning, that these are all portraits of his

Bits and pieces of seemingly ancient barbed wire are consumed by palm trees

these images as evidence of archaeological digs where each epoch has fought

was heading towards me with a Palestinian farmer on its back. At that point I

own great city, Venice. Similarly Yaakov’s pictures are more than just images of

near a frontier post. Soldiers lounge by checkpoints, their faces revealing the

over the interpretation of history and the meaning of the facts on the ground.

just asked the farmer to pose for a portrait. He agreed without hesitation and

places; indeed, there is often no real image of a definable city in his works but

composite portrait of contemporary Israel: Ethiopians, Yemenis, ex-Soviets…

Yaakov’s photography admits nothing and no interpretation. Rather it is a

I went about making the portrait. It seemed that the donkey didn’t stop mov-

rather an accumulation of non-places – stretches of desert, empty roads, edg-

HaBiqah, Jericho, Tiberias, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights,

search for the roots of Israel and into Yaakov’s own understanding of Israel and

ing for a second and I was focusing and re-focusing. I shot 3 plates thinking I

es of lakes, abandoned military constructions – Ottoman, Syrian, Israeli? – and

and around Gaza: the pictures of non-places accrete, sort themselves out, re-

himself.

would be lucky if one came out sharp. After developing the plates I was amazed

rubbish tips. It is as enigmatic a landscape as anything in Invisible Cities, and

cede, return on Yaakov’s photographic pilgrimage, Caesarea, the Negev,

that all were sharp. The more I thought about that encounter I was sure I

that is Yaakov’s point.

Haifa… all a part of Israel and all apart.

Yaakov. Israel. Two names for the same person. A quest. A vision. A book of

shouldn’t overlook it. Somehow it connected the geographical journey, the

Yaakov’s images are inconclusive but telling. They allude to many things but

In the bright sun of midday, the land shimmers. Despite the precision of the

photographs.

mental journey and the religious journey in one”.

do not admit fixed impressions. Even the famous “facts on the ground”, be

camera, Yaakov’s pictures also take on the quality of a Fata Morgana, of a

This picture has become the centrepiece of Yaakov’s book. It echoes the meta-

they military outposts or settlements, are uncertain. Everything seems subject

dream. The girl napping on the desert ground – a student, a soldier, a hitch-

physical quest and chance or kismet that may produce such a layered mo-

to debate and to interpretation. It all seems ad hoc, even surreal – again a feel-

hiker, who knows? It is not important. She is only yet another storyteller of

ment.

ing provoked by Calvino. There are images here that, due to the desert land-

Yaakov’s story.

Yaakov’s storytelling also takes on a mythical dimension as he exposes his

scape and Yaakov’s use of perspective, seem like something out of Star Trek or

The old man picking herbs or flowers is another searcher. The Bedouin en-

plates across all of the country in such chance moments. Each image tells a

Star Wars. A road ends at nothing, its lines suddenly stopping. An abandoned

camped near the Jordanian border are figures out of Biblical times despite

part of a story that is all part of the same story in the way Italo Calvino’s narra-

bandstand near the Dead Sea Hilton, the scene of a man’s morning prayer,

their modern dress. The soldiers manning a checkpoint likewise.

tor of Invisible Cities, the very young and well-imagined explorer Marco Polo,

looks like a scene from “The City on the Edge of Forever”, an early Star Trek

As these images reveal the marks on the ground of recent times and ancient,

Bill Kouwenhoven Paris 15 November 2011

8

utes for him to reach me. As I waited, the thought that I was hallucinating or

describes to the aged Kublai Khan the stories of the cities of his empire, an

episode with its portal into another time… Another gate looks onto a land-

the fragments of abandoned water parks, dead trees, yet more barbed wire,

suffering from sunstroke crossed my mind, but I stood my ground. He stopped

empire that has grown too large for one man, even one as powerful as the

scape filled with… nothing. Perhaps it is the site of an abandoned resort, or

roads leading to nowhere, become accidental sculptures. History is embedded

his donkey 2 metres from me and we greeted each other. The whole encounter

Great Khan, to envisage let alone comprehend.

not. As Yaakov describes his thoughts, “Israel is a place so very much of its

in the landscape as much as the present. The timeless quality of Yaakov’s pic-

had a biblical feel to it. In the Jewish tradition the Messiah is supposed to ar-

Just as Calvino’s Marco Polo describes the impossibly fantastical cities of the

time and totally out of time”.

tures is nonetheless very timely and contemporary. It is impossible not to see

rive on a white donkey and here in the middle of nowhere the white donkey

Khan’s realm, he remarks, upon questioning, that these are all portraits of his

Bits and pieces of seemingly ancient barbed wire are consumed by palm trees

these images as evidence of archaeological digs where each epoch has fought

was heading towards me with a Palestinian farmer on its back. At that point I

own great city, Venice. Similarly Yaakov’s pictures are more than just images of

near a frontier post. Soldiers lounge by checkpoints, their faces revealing the

over the interpretation of history and the meaning of the facts on the ground.

just asked the farmer to pose for a portrait. He agreed without hesitation and

places; indeed, there is often no real image of a definable city in his works but

composite portrait of contemporary Israel: Ethiopians, Yemenis, ex-Soviets…

Yaakov’s photography admits nothing and no interpretation. Rather it is a

I went about making the portrait. It seemed that the donkey didn’t stop mov-

rather an accumulation of non-places – stretches of desert, empty roads, edg-

HaBiqah, Jericho, Tiberias, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights,

search for the roots of Israel and into Yaakov’s own understanding of Israel and

ing for a second and I was focusing and re-focusing. I shot 3 plates thinking I

es of lakes, abandoned military constructions – Ottoman, Syrian, Israeli? – and

and around Gaza: the pictures of non-places accrete, sort themselves out, re-

himself.

would be lucky if one came out sharp. After developing the plates I was amazed

rubbish tips. It is as enigmatic a landscape as anything in Invisible Cities, and

cede, return on Yaakov’s photographic pilgrimage, Caesarea, the Negev,

that all were sharp. The more I thought about that encounter I was sure I

that is Yaakov’s point.

Haifa… all a part of Israel and all apart.

Yaakov. Israel. Two names for the same person. A quest. A vision. A book of

shouldn’t overlook it. Somehow it connected the geographical journey, the

Yaakov’s images are inconclusive but telling. They allude to many things but

In the bright sun of midday, the land shimmers. Despite the precision of the

photographs.

mental journey and the religious journey in one”.

do not admit fixed impressions. Even the famous “facts on the ground”, be

camera, Yaakov’s pictures also take on the quality of a Fata Morgana, of a

This picture has become the centrepiece of Yaakov’s book. It echoes the meta-

they military outposts or settlements, are uncertain. Everything seems subject

dream. The girl napping on the desert ground – a student, a soldier, a hitch-

physical quest and chance or kismet that may produce such a layered mo-

to debate and to interpretation. It all seems ad hoc, even surreal – again a feel-

hiker, who knows? It is not important. She is only yet another storyteller of

ment.

ing provoked by Calvino. There are images here that, due to the desert land-

Yaakov’s story.

Yaakov’s storytelling also takes on a mythical dimension as he exposes his

scape and Yaakov’s use of perspective, seem like something out of Star Trek or

The old man picking herbs or flowers is another searcher. The Bedouin en-

plates across all of the country in such chance moments. Each image tells a

Star Wars. A road ends at nothing, its lines suddenly stopping. An abandoned

camped near the Jordanian border are figures out of Biblical times despite

part of a story that is all part of the same story in the way Italo Calvino’s narra-

bandstand near the Dead Sea Hilton, the scene of a man’s morning prayer,

their modern dress. The soldiers manning a checkpoint likewise.

tor of Invisible Cities, the very young and well-imagined explorer Marco Polo,

looks like a scene from “The City on the Edge of Forever”, an early Star Trek

As these images reveal the marks on the ground of recent times and ancient,

Bill Kouwenhoven Paris 15 November 2011

10

Wall, Water Pipe, Garbage Cans, Near Jericho, 2006

10

Wall, Water Pipe, Garbage Cans, Near Jericho, 2006

12

Sinkholes, Ein Gedi, 2011

12

Sinkholes, Ein Gedi, 2011