I have loved to watch things near me from up close since early age, trying to penetrate their secrets. The world has always seemed full of mystery to me, concealing within it endless stories and surprises. Even things that on the surface have looked obvious, simple and clear, always seemed to be woven from inscrutabilities that aroused my curiosity, and drove me to search after its concealed images.
But unlike in the past, when my soul yearned for the faraway, when my eyes sought after remote countries, and most of my work dealt with people and images around the world, this body of work shows my close surroundings, both physically and mentally, my here and now.
It might be just another step in this voyage we call Life, the voyage of my life.
The way I observe things has changed. It has become deeper and more focused.
True, trips to faraway lands and cultures still lure me. But such a voyage to my immediate surroundings, here, in Jerusalem, close to my home, on the slopes of the Kidron Valley, opposite Mount Zion and the Temple Mount, where the Valley of Hinnom begins its curve, - all this broadens my heart immeasurably.
Taking portraits of people was what I loved to do best from the very outset of my career as a photographer. Now I chose to take portraits of still-life, of nature, all in walking distance of my home in Jerusalem.
And the living and the dead became one: humans, plants and stones. It seems as though everything was caste from the same material by a primal, ancient hidden and mysterious creator.
And I saw:
Everything is composed of everything. Everything is mingled in everything.
The eternal embraces the temporal.
The close contains the distant.
The revealed keeps the concealed.
The prose holds the poetry.
And I realized once again: unbelievable wonders exist around the corner, with in reaching distance. All one needs is an open heart and an open eye.