Nili asleep, Nebi Musa, 2010. © Yaakov Israel

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

Yaakov Israel takes us on a photographic journey across a complex land, offering a personal viewpoint of the nation that shares his name.

Taking inspiration from the American tradition of journeys made by photographers such as Robert Frank and Stephen Shore, Yaakov photographed the people and sights he encountered during many years of repeated wandering.

The exhibition’s title was inspired by a chance meeting with a Palestinian man who rode past whilst Yaakov was photographing near the Dead Sea. He says, ‘it was only after developing the photographic plate that I realised I had encountered my ‘Messiah’: in Orthodox Jewish tradition, the Messiah (the Prophet) will arrive riding on a white donkey’.

Yaakov’s images reveal a diverse range of people and places. His portraits feature Jews and Muslims; Arabs and Israelis; students and soldiers; children and homeless people. Whilst his landscapes frequently show neglected or abandoned spaces, such as an overgrown swimming pool in the Northern Judean Desert, others portray moments of tranquility and beauty, such as gathering herbs in Haifa. Jerusalem-based Yaakov says, ‘part of my identity as an Israeli is to question everything, not to take anything for granted, to show the tensions that constantly exist’.

Exhibition courtesy of Margaret Street Gallery, London.

Morning Prayer, The Dead Sea Hilton, 2006. © Yaakov Israel

Swimming Pool, Northern Judean Desert, 2011. © Yaakov Israel

The Man on the White Donkey, HaBiqah, 2006. © Yaakov Israel

Eman, South-Western Negev, 2011. © Yaakov Israel

Artist

Yaakov Israel

Yaakov Israel (Jerusalem, 1974) lives and works in Israel. He graduated in 2002 from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and has since taught photography at some of the most prominent art and photography schools and colleges in Israel including the Bezalel Academy.

His work has been the subject of solo and group shows and he has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally including galleries in the USA, Italy and the UK. Yaakov Israel’s photographs have also been featured in international journals, including TIME LightBox (USA), Photo District News (USA), hotshoe (UK) and PRIVATE (France). The photographer was recently awarded the PHotoEspaña Descubrimientos (New Discoveries) PHE12 Award (2012) for The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey, where the jury panel included Impressions’ Director Anne McNeill. Yaakov is represented by Margaret Street Gallery in London and Oslo8, contemporary photography gallery in Basel.