2006 Exhibition
When we began working on The Lior Ziv “Local Testimony" Exhibition, we hoped that it would represent a shift. We hoped it would be marked by solidarity, and by sensitivity to inequality and deprivation, and to the political and economic injustice suffered by disadvantaged groups in Israeli society in 2006.

We wanted the exhibition to reflect a different kind of sensitivity, so that, besides the “visual kidnappings” that typify the photogenicism of news photography, there would also be room for a questioning, wondering, and even errant or misleading perspective. A gaze that resists the seductive power of a “strong photograph”, the kind that evokes brief and blunt responses like “Wow!”, and instead of the authority, power, and effectiveness of that kind of photography, invites a moment of doubt and demands a second look.

But the chain of events in the months since then created a completely different reality from the one we envisaged. Just when it seemed like a new civic-social agenda was emerging in Israeli public life, the country was hit by a series of crises, of which the main ones to date are, the “big bang” in Israeli politics, the severe stroke that befell the prime minister, Ariel Sharon; a harsh confrontation while evacuating the illegal outpost of Amona; and military entanglements with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and with Hizballah in Lebanon.

All of these are widely reflected in the exhibition, but surprisingly, this did not mean that there was no room left for the pictures we had initially planned to show. Thanks to the wide variety of the photographs submitted to the competition, and their high quality, even in such a year, we are able to present images that not only have an immediate impact, but also an enduring power of persuasion. For that we owe gratitude first and foremost to the photographers, but, no less, to our team of judges.

Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin Initiator and producer

Yosi Nahmias Curator

Jury: Levia Stern, Aamer Dirbas, Miki Kratsman, Naama Haikin, Aryeh Sagie (Sachi), Yon Feder, David Adika, Prof Arik Carmon
The exhibition was presented at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv