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

generation—yalla bye (OK, good-bye)—is a combination of Arabic
and English in total disregard of Hebrew. This slang is symptomatic of
the mood and attitude of the new generation. As a result, contemporary
Israeli artists are still engaged in dealing with myths and coping
with memory-breaking norms and consensus, paving the road to the
future which is our today, our here and now. The refrain from the recent
rock hit “We Are a Screwed Generation” is just another indication
of the state of mind of the younger generation of local artists.
In contrast to Western countries, Israeli artists actively engage in political
debate as an antidote to indifference and resignation. Their creations
sometimes include only subtle subversive messages, yet often
the artists employ a rhetoric of shock. While relentlessly scrutinizing
life in the country, Israeli art, including photography and video, holds
up a cruel mirror to the country and the society. The questioning of
national values comes as a reminder and a reproach to the average citizen’s
stereotyped views. This accounts for one of the distinguishing
traits of artistic creation in Israel: at a moment when in many Western
countries mainstream artistic creation is strongly influenced by political
correctness, Israeli artists, critics, and most of the artistic establishment
consider it their prime duty to be militant, or downright
“politically incorrect.” In a country where state emergency regulations
are regularly extended without question and military censorship still
applies, this almost seems like an act of heroism.
The lens-based arts in Israel have developed independently of the
mainstream arts, and they have been viewed in Israel, as elsewhere, to
some extent as the enfants terribles of the arts. However, photography
and video have almost reached the end of their crusade for recognition.
Warmly embraced by all, artists and critics alike, they have a new position
as influential modes of expression, whose ramifications are felt
in all creative fields. Not only have photography and video in Israel
produced a considerable number of artists using the media to the
fullest, a new generation of educated and sophisticated consumers read
and understand them in the most contemporary manner.
More than all other art forms, photography and video essentially aim
to create mental images that affect the viewer. The multifaceted works
of contemporary Israeli artists touch on a large variety of issues, but
their most dominant and important faculty is the lucid and incisive
look they direct toward our land and life. In examining the changing
and scarred landscape and society, they confront us with a most caustic
critique of our values and social environment. They offer a constant
reevaluation of our collective knowledge and of the
understanding of our nation and our culture in the face of common
misconceptions and preconceived ideas. They are a most courageous
attempt to foster the heightened consciousness that can enable us to attain
a viable future.
Gérard Allon: The Artist
The transformation of the camera arts in Israel began in the summer
of 1975 with a juried exhibition in Tel Aviv entitled Through the Lens
of Immigrant Photographers. Held under the auspices of the Ministry
of Education and Culture, the exhibition included six artists selected
by a jury: one of them, the then-unknown Gérard Allon. To include
him was an act of almost prophetic clairvoyance, since both as an artist
and a photographer, Allon was destined to play a most important role
in the renewal of the art in Israel, above all in the field of commercial
and fashion photography. Together with a handful of other young photographers
active at the time (among them the immigrants Yosaif Cohain
and Neil Folberg, and Israelis educated abroad, such as Hanan
6