Attacks on Photography
Liat Elbling is among the most original voices in today’s local photography scene. She has an exceptionally developed aesthetic sense, and in recent years, her exhibitions have displayed intense, astutely composed photographs that convey a deeply insightful conceptual outlook and earned her the 2011 Constantiner Photography Award from the Tel Aviv Museum, which also hosted an exhibition of her work. Her photographs frequently place the medium of photography and the photographer herself in the witness stand, where this medium is explored and examined while the photographer is required to provide testimony.
The above-cited quotation, borrowed from the Jewish Law of Halakhah regarding the provision of testimony, holds that the testimony of a single individual is not considered credible and that two (or more) witnesses are necessary to establish trustworthy testimony. The camera, as we know, is a means of capturing the appearance of reality and documenting it. As such, the photograph is subservient to reality and serves as evidence thereof. If the camera documents evidence and the photograph is the evidence, then the photographer, Elbling, is the witness. However, she is only one witness, and according to the Halakhic approach, we must view her testimony—that is, her photographs—with skepticism. In this context, our doubt leads us to engage in an inquiry regarding the photographs of the photographer-witness and to contemplate the photography itself...
Exhibition Catalog, 2013
English
26 pages, Softcover
27 x 21 cm
