by Neta Dekel
The cry of the people rises from the streets with an intensity not heard before in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of worried and frightened people are fighting for their future and the future of their children.
The people of Israel are sizzling and raging. Tens and hundreds of thousands go out to the streets every week and demonstrate against the government, against the regime coup, against the unilateral and unjust steps and laws. We are worried about the future of the Democracy of Israel.
These demonstrations are mass, loud. Everyone is shouting, drumming, beeping, and playing trumpets. The demonstrators use everything they can to express their turbulent feelings. The cry and creativity burst out of anger, fear, and frustration. This is a historical period in the making, which will be taught in civics and history classes.
When I decided to accompany and document the demonstrations, I thought about how to bring about a certain aspect of the demonstration. You can take pictures of signs or people; you can take pictures from above or general photographs. But walking inside the demonstration, mingling with the crowd – one thing stands out. There is a lot of noise.
How do you express feelings and sounds through still photography? A picture is a freeze of a moment, without sound, without smell. Just light.
So how do you capture sound? Voice photography was my challenge, beyond other photographic challenges. The demonstrations were held in the evening, in the absence of natural light. Most of the crown were waving flags, which were a contributing factor to the atmosphere but also disturbing and concealing. There was a very large crowd, and the crowd was constantly moving and moving. That is, the environment was unstable and certainly not controlled.
The method I chose was to constantly walk in crowds, which wasn't easy considering how crowded it was. Look for the interesting people, the special moments in which they express their feelings.
Photograph from eye level the moment when the voice is heard. Mouth wide open with a scream coming out of the heart, hoping it will be heard on the other side. The moment when you can hear the voice is the decisive moment.
This is a long project that requires perseverance. It is possible that from every exit to the demonstration, I will return with one or two pictures. Hopefully a little more. There will always be failures. A great picture, out of focus, the background getting in the way, or even a situation I couldn't approach from the right direction.
In my opinion, the pictures presented here express the appropriate moment. The moment when the emotion is expressed powerfully, loudly.
