When I arrived in Israel for the first time in 2007, I was struck by how many different identities existed in the region, and how many ways there were to be ‘other’ – not just Jewish versus Arab, but even within the category of ‘Israeli’. This seemed particularly true in the disputed territories of the West Bank.
I remained particularly fascinated, however, with the Jewish settlements, which seemed to exist in a strange reality of their own. Obviously, these communities were part of an occupation in the name of Israel, but they were also in some sense in defiant opposition to mainstream Israeli society. Some of these communities were prosperous suburbs with tree-lined streets and sports fields, while others were spartan groups of caravans with organic vegetable plots and armed guards; some looked like bunkers in a new world war. I tried to explain that I had no interest in making a visual polemic, either in condemnation or support of the settlements. Rather, I wanted to depict this contradictory world of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ as neutrally as possible.
As I look back on the completed work, I think it succeeds in depicting Jewish life in the West Bank outside of the distraction of the narrative of war and political conflict presented in the media. Quite simply this work says these are the people, this is the landscape. But of course, the meaning of the work will depend on the interpretation of the viewer, no one of whom can be absolutely impartial of course which is fine with me. As much as I endeavoured to neutralise my own perspective, and to suspend my own political sympathies as I made these images, I also want this work to be a catalyst to discourse, to be the beginning of something, not the end of something.
– Nick Waplington
Each day, L’Oeil de la Photographie will present to you a series by a photographer.
EXHIBITION
This place
From February 12 to June 5th, 2016
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11238
United States
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org
http://www.this-place.org
http://nickwaplington.co.uk
