Catalog of a Collection of Photographs by Gérard Allon in the Judaica Collection of the Harvard library

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perspective on himself and his life in France. However it quickly became evident to him that his place was in Israel, and his stay turned primarily into a quest for roots and identity. It was the internal feeling of extraneousness and alienation that he hoped Israel might be able to resolve. In fact, he came in order to ask questions, to learn and to absorb, rather than to change and influence. The moment of Allon’s arrival in Israel was a critical one for the nation. Israel was marked by extremes: the rather brutal awakening from the euphoria of the Six Day War of 1967 and the trauma and tragedy of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, all mixed with fear and a cautious optimism surrounding Israel’s peace agreement with Egypt. In the midst of such vital concerns, art was certainly secondary, and photography was stagnating between the old schools and a mere mannerist copying of sporadic Western influences. Gérard Allon asserts that he came to learn and to enrich his life, not to teach. However, in his new environment he soon found himself teaching, applying, and further developing all the skills and knowledge he had wanted to leave behind in France. Totally unconsciously, and in a most natural process, instead of finding and receiving answers, he became an innovator and an influential figure trying to fill the gap between the local condition of photography and what he had learned and experienced abroad. He found out that cinema and still photography in Israel were lagging behind, both on the creative and technological level. From his perspective, the characters and the plots in Israeli cinema at that time were shallow and naïve, lacking in sophistication— and that was also true of photography. In this situation, the outsider— the new immigrant—faced the dilemma of whether to act or not: would his involvement constitute negative interference? In the end, he opted for active participation in the process of renovating and rebuilding the fields of activity in which he was most experienced and prolific. In retrospect, and from the historical perspective, it is clear that he made a marked difference, both as an artist and creator, as well as a teacher. The younger generation of photographers—some of them, like Gérard Allon, new immigrants or Israelis educated abroad—worked from the late 1970s on to create a new order of cosmopolitan photography based on contemporary Western canons. In a revolutionary fashion, Allon and his Israeli colleagues purposefully ignored or obscured all that was prior to them, labeling it as old, obsolete, anachronistic, and worthless. They refused to establish any kind of dialogue with Israeli forerunners of the medium. For Allon, his lack of familiarity with or knowledge of the antecedents of Israeli photography became a major advantage, as his point of reference was the current situation, which motivated him to act. However, this did not deter him from a noticeably conscious effort to reach deep into local cultural conditions, including problematic issues around the Bible and Jewish questions, the territories, and the mystic or messianic political currents in the country. Although there had always been rather intensive camera activity in the region, especially in Israel, in the late 1970s and early 1980s there was practically no critical writing of any kind in the field. Even museum exhibition catalogues were mainly descriptive, to some extent apologetic, and did not attempt to create a critical discourse of any kind. 9
Figure 2: From the film Shevarim (Fragments) 1990-2006: The Second Lebanon War; shown: Gérard Allon. Photography was still battling for recognition as an art form and seeking legitimacy as a creative/artistic tool in its own right. Today‘s contemporary Israeli film, video and photography still owe much to the intensive activity and creative burst that took place in the 1970s. Gérard Allon’s career has been characterized by continuity and a deep coherence. One of the first works he created shortly after his arrival in Israel was a film on the first Jewish settlement on the Golan Heights, and this documentary has provided basic material that he constantly reuses in his current work. In Fragments (1990-2006), for instance, he combines parts of this early footage with recent takes in a new film expressing continuity, but also pointing to the radicalization of the religious discourse that has been sliding towards political messianism (Figure 2). The remarkable variety and originality of Allon’s photographic activity quickly earned him a place in the front row of the camera practitioners working in the commercial arena. Advertising agencies and publications sought him out because his images brought new ideas and a fresh approach to fashion and magazine illustrations. Allon not only introduced new standards in this field, he also deployed his 10
Page 1 and 2: G É R A R D A L L O N Catalog of a
Page 3 and 4: TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S FOREWO
Page 5 and 6: It is our hope that, as resources p
Page 7 and 8: What characterizes contemporary Isr
Page 9 and 10: generation—yalla bye (OK, good-by
Page 11: Allon’s variety of interests is m
Page 15 and 16: An additional and significant area
Page 17 and 18: Figure 9: Yom Shelishi (Third Day),
Page 19 and 20: tography. As conceived and expresse
Page 21 and 22: and has moved to the wider national
Page 23 and 24: I draw a basic difference between t
Page 25 and 26: If you shatter a holographic plate,
Page 27 and 28: lets us see of a just disappeared e
Page 29 and 30: AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S My de
Page 32: TS’ERLI KA-TSERLI | ILAN RONEN |
Page 36 and 37: BI-DEMI YAMEHA | SHMUEL YOSEF AGNON
Page 38: OEDIPUS THE KING | SOPHOCLES | HABI
Page 44: MITOS | RANEH YERUSHALMI | ITIM THE
Page 48: AKEV AKILES | ILAN RONEN | HABIMAH,
Page 54: NAMER HAVARBUROT | YA’AKOV SHABTA
Page 58 and 59: DONYAH ROSITAH | FEDERICO GARCIA LO
Page 60: MA’GAL HA-GIR HA-KAVKAZI | BERTOL
Page 64:
BUSTAN SEPHARADI | YTSHAK NAVON | H
Page 68:
HEVRON | TAMIR GREENBERG | HABIMAH-
Page 73 and 74:
HA-DEREKH LE-’EN HAROD | AMOS KEN
Page 76:
DON PERLIMPLIN | FEDERICO GARCÍA L
Page 79 and 80:
JULIUS CAESAR | WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR
Page 81 and 82:
HA-MEKHASHEFAH | ABRAHAM GOLDFADEN
Page 84:
SHAVU’AH | SHELOMI MOSHKOVITS | H
Page 88 and 89:
MIKHTAV AHAVAH | FERNANDO ARABAL |
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MEDEA | EURIPIDES | HABIMAH, 1998
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MILHAMAH | LARS NORN | HABIMAH, 200
Page 100:
KEN HA KUKIA | DALE VASSERMAN | HAB
Page 104 and 105:
MOTO SHEL SOKHEN | ARTHUR MILLER |
Page 106:
HA-TAHANAH SHEL DON KIHOTEH | GILAD
Page 110:
GESHEM SHAHOR | SHIMON BOUZAGLO | H
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EPHIGENIA IN AULIS | EURIPIDES, SHI
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TUVYAH HA-HALBAN | SHOLEM ALEICHEM
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AKHZAR VE-RAHUM SOPHOCLES | HABIMAH
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TASHMAD | SHEMU’EL ASIFRI | HABIM
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YALDE HA-TSEL | TOMER BENTSIYON | Y
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P H OTO G R A P H S B Y G É R A R
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Mede’ah (Medea) (1998) 88-89 Kadi
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Ha-heder shel Varonikah (Veronica
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2004 Oskar ve-dodah Rozah (staged b
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2004 Ha-snob (JPCDPIA33) (165 image
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2004 Di Pari shvesters (JPCDPIA40)
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I N D E X B Y T I T L E O F G É R
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Farvos lakht di kale? (JPCDPIA196)
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Mah at hoshevet?: mivhan Mikhal Hai
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Shavu‘a (JPCDPIA84) (208 images)
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Catalog of a Collection of Photographs by Gérard Allon in the Judaica Collection of the Harvard library

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