Local Testimony 2025

Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin, Founder and Executive Curator of Local Testimony

Local Testimony 2025 is the third consecutive exhibition documenting the events of October 7, the Swords of Iron War, and the determined public campaign for the release of the hostages. In early October 2025, after two years of struggle, a peace agreement was signed to end the war in Gaza. Soon after, the twenty surviving hostages who remained in captivity returned home, all on the same day. During the following weeks, deceased hostages were returned to Israel. We hope that all of the deceased hostages will be returned and receive honorable burial.

The terrors of the war in Gaza and Lebanon, the unrest in the West Bank, the missile and drone attacks from Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, the outcry for the hostages’ release, and the deep political and social rifts – all have been captured by photographers working tirelessly throughout this period. The immense human cost, the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the growing international pressure, and the unprecedented length of the war have left heavy marks on individuals and on the region as a whole. 

Despite the agreement reached, the future remains uncertain. The images displayed in the exhibition are a testimony to a fragile existence, in a time when governmental responsibility has eroded and democracy itself seems endangered. Yet within a harsh reality of grief, loss, and wounds both visible and unseen, and against the attempts to manipulate truth for political ends, emerges the image of a civil society striving to hold on to its humanity and to shape its own future.

Photographers have accompanied those affected by the war through long processes of healing and renewal. Their sustained and sensitive work fostered bonds of trust with the people they documented: the kidnapped and released, the bereaved, the displaced, and those who dedicated themselves to the cause of returning the hostages home. Out of these encounters emerged an intimate and piercing human document – one that reflects the resilience and pain of Israeli society in one of its most difficult chapters.

Founded in 2003, Local Testimony has been exhibited at MUZA, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv since 2009. Its long partnership with the museum underscores the cultural and historical significance of documentary photography in Israel. The photographs of Local Testimony will one day serve as part of the enduring record of the events of October 7.

Between Photojournalism and Cultural Memory

Ilia Yefimovich, curator of Local Testimony 2025

Over the years, I have taken part in Local Testimony as a field photographer – capturing fragments of reality and submitting my most compelling images to the competition. This year, as the curator of Local Testimony 2025, in a time marked by a multi-front war, I found myself shifting between two roles. On the one hand, I worked as an independent photographer, documenting the harsh reality from a deeply personal vantage point; on the other, as a curator, I observed my fellow photographers documenting the events unfolding in front of us, wondering how their images might weave together in the visual mosaic of this exhibition.

This duality sharpened during the confrontation with Iran in June 2025. Photojournalists worked tirelessly around the clock as ballistic missiles struck the country and left unprecedented damage. We, the photographers, operated under a palpable sense of personal danger. From these images of destruction and loss across the country emerged a visual document of a kind never before seen in Israel’s history.

In a time of endless cameras, rapid distribution, and increasingly blurred lines between truth and fiction, the work of press photographers deepens our reading of reality and sharpens our critical gaze. The aesthetic decisions made in the decisive moment – angle, color, contrast – are integral to shaping a layered photograph. In doing so, the image reflects both the photographer’s field experience, and their sense of public responsibility. One of the most  meaningful moments for me in curating Local Testimony 2025 was witnessing how these decisions that shaped my work in the field under such difficult conditions found new meaning within the exhibition. Beyond the fractured, fragile image of the present, this year’s visual record is woven together with images of the past and offers a reflection of the future.

Nir Elias, photojournalist and director of the photography department of the Reuters news agency in Israel
Ilan Itzhayek, journalist, editor in the Yedioth Ahronoth/ynet Group and head of the journalism track at Sapir Academic College
Vardi Kahana, photographer, curator and Local Testimony board member
Miki Kratsman, Artist-activist and lecturer in the photography department of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Guy Raz, photography curator, MUZA, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv
Giora Salmi, Photographer, educator, and director of the Geographic Photography School
Nurit Yarden, artist, instructor, curator and lecturer on photography
Ilia Yefimovich, documentarian, photographer for the German DPA news agency and curator of Local Testimony 2025
Sagit Zluf Namir, artist, lecturer and photography curator