For the past decade Ron Amir has been consistently and persistently photographing the village of Jisr al-Zarqa, which lies adjacent to Caeserea and is revealed before the eyes of travelers on the highway that runs between Haifa and the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. In the annals of Israeli photography it is hard to recall a similarly extended and dedicated project focused on such a limited area.
Amir's photography crosses genres and definitions, and oscillates between the realms of the documentary and the staged. His portraits of the village encompass its residents, homes, and landscapes. His extended stay in Jisr and his work there as an artist-teacher have given his presence a sense of familiarity and intimacy, which in turn imbue his gaze with a penetrating and empathetic quality that typically eludes the outsider.
The exhibition at the Haifa Museum of Art forms part of a triangle that reveals, for the first time, all the elements of this project. A second component of the exhibit is presented simultaneously at the Israeli Center for Digital Arts in Holon, and a third - at the Jisr Al-Zarqa High School. A visit to all three of the triangle's vertices affords a comprehensive overview of the entire project and invites the visitor to trace, in practice, the line that connects Haifa, Jisr and Holon, thereby effectively tracing the contour of the Mediterranean coast line.
Production of the exhibition and its catalogue was made possible by the generous support of:
Beit Berl Academic College
The Israel Lottery Council for Culture & Arts
The Ostrovsky Family Fund