Local Testimony and World Press Photo reflect the events and mood of the past year through the lens of photographers. The two exhibitions will be on display, side by side, at the Eretz Israel Museum from December 10 – January 15, 2015.
Local Testimony provides a platform for the best photographs of news and documentary photographers in Israel. This year, 7,000 photographs were sent in by 300 photographers, of these, 250 photographs by 50 photographers will participate in the exhibit. The photographs are submitted anonymously, so that the committee selects photographs to exhibit, and not photographers. Only professional photographers (those affiliated with a newspaper, or independent photographers whose work appears in the media or exhibitions) may participate. The respected Israeli photographer Vardi Kahana will curate the exhibition for the second time this year.
World Press Photo was founded in 1995, and reflects the passing year, the ever-changing world and the changes in news and documentary photography. The annual award is one of the most prestigious in the field, and the exhibit is on display in over 100 countries. This year, about 100,000 photographs were submitted by 5,692 photographers from 131 different countries. An international committee selected 200 photographs for the exhibit.
2014 Jury Chair Michele McNally stated that “2014 was an unrelenting news year, which brought us conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the dissolution of the Arab Spring, and an Ebola epidemic. Syria continued on a course of demolition, as the group that calls itself Islamic State went on with its brutal campaign but photographers around the world bravely navigated these treacherous and dangerous situations, and provided images of places most of us would never see.”
World Press Photo of the Year 2014 is an image by Danish photographer Mads Nissen, which shows Jon and Alex, a gay couple, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The photograph is part of Nissen’s larger project called “Homophobia in Russia.”
Local Testimony and World Press Photo will open on December 10, 2015, and remain on display until January 16, 2015.
Eretz Israel Museum, 2 Haim Levanon Street, Tel Aviv, 03-6415244
Opening hours: Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday 10:00 – 16:00; Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10:00 – 22:00; Friday 10:00 – 14:00. Ticket prices: adult 52 NIS; Tel Aviv residents 38 NIS; seniors 24 NIS; under 18 yrs free admission.
Links: Local Testimony; World Press Photo
