Local Testimony 2020

Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin, founder and director

Local testimony is an annual photo-journalism and documentary photography exhibition, which was first showcased in 2003. The exhibition gives a platform that underscores the cultural qualities of local professional documentary photography and hence demonstrates its social significance. This form of photography expresses a complex aspect of the human experience, which is not fully exposed in the main media channels.

Local Testimony is not only a photography exhibition; it is also a social, cultural and theoretical event, which points beyond the photographed images to the structures of power of Israeli politics. The exhibition wishes to strengthen a journalistic and documentary investigative action that is true to a freedom of expression, which can transcend interests of editing, rating or any other interest that serve crony capitalism.

The images that make up Local Testimony 2020 reflect a society in crisis. A year that is crazy in so many aspects; this period seems to have become a local and global turning point, in the wake of which the world will never look the same. Photographs of social distancing, side by side with photographs of solidarity in a state of division, rage and loss of trust. 

Perhaps Covid-19 pushed us to the edge, or perhaps it just helped expose a long-rooted ailment. It seems that we will long continue to feel the effects of this year’s story, as it is revealed through the photographs of Local Testimony 2020, which will become, I hope, symbols of a struggle for justice, fraternity and pride.

This year’s exhibition is deeply important. This was a culturally arid year, and these photos immortalize one of the most historically significant periods for humanity.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Midtown, owned by Israel Canada, which have sponsored the Local Testimony project this year. Midtown have fashioned, especial for us, a unique and original outdoor museum, adapted to the complexity of our times, thereby making it possible for us to open our exhibition to the public. Thus, Midtown supports the tradition of this exhibition while also strengthening cultural life in these difficult times.

I would like to thank the photographers, who exhibited exceptional bravery in exposing themselves to the virus in order to bring us images of this period, from the hospital units, demonstrations, protests and clashes with the security forces.

I would like to thank the jury, who came together and worked tirelessly to try and make the impossible choice of selecting the pictures of the year from among the thousands of photographs sent to us by the dedicated photographers.

Beyond the Mask

Eldad Rafaeli, Curator, Local Testimony 2020

A crumpled mask, a glazed look, a heavy breath. 

Photography, which is fashioned on the direct gaze, on peering into the windows of the soul, has encountered a barrier. 

Beyond the mask the voice is muffled and unclear, the lump in the throat grows bigger, tears fill the eyes. The picture of reality becomes blurry, for the photographers as well as for their subjects. How do we focus the gaze? How do we find the accurate angle? How can we move through the lockdown?

Many artists have attempted to offer us interpretations for this changing world. Furnished with a press card that made it possible for them to move freely, the photojournalists traveled across the infected land, exposed to the extreme and even bizarre change of the landscape we have grown accustomed to seeing. The loss of personal space, alongside social distancing and a cultural rift, blend into political intrigue, a raging plague and an immense economic crisis. And above the clear signs, there drifts a deceptive uncertainty, which disseminates infinite

question marks, wreaking us with confusion.

By the very virtue of its role as a historian of its time, Local Testimony 2020 finds itself fashioning a communal film of life in Israel in the shadow of the plague. The exhibition moves from a birds-eye-view of the events towards a focus on details. Drones watch from the outside over the empty cities, the erupting nature, and the demonstrations, while the photographers on ground document the corruption, animosity, home, and relationships.

Social, economic and existential anxiety plagues so many people, among them many photographers and artists who have lost their source of income.

Local Testimony holds each and every one of them the highest esteem, and hopes they keep the flame of creativity alive. The emphasis in this year’s works is the transition from focused journalistic photography of a single event, to an ongoing, complex personal photography. We hope that art continues to light the way for us and that photography will continue show us the picture, even beyond the mask.

Ilan Itzhayek, principal editor of Yedioth Ahronoth’s Xnet website
Ayelet Hashahar Cohen, artist, curator and teacher. Head of the Photography Department of the Musrara School of Art and manager of the Musrara Gallery, Jerusalem
Vardi Kahana, photographer, lecturer, curator and member of the Local Testimony editorial board
Heidi Levine, photo-journalist
Rami Maymon, artist, photographer and lecturer
Doron Tsabari, director
Eldad Rafaeli, photographer, artist and curator of the Local Testimony 2020 exhibition
Etty Schwartz, photographer, curator and lecturer
Ami Steinitz, curator and member of the Local Testimony editorial board