While travelling through Israel and the occupied territories, The French photographer Valentine Vermeil saw dialectics and cultures in opposition; a Muslim culture where each event is supported by God’s will, and a Jewish culture connecting the tragic history of its people with the need for defence and absolute supremacy. “Today the region is split up and subject to many social aberrations and absurdities”, she explains. “In spite of the international community declaring the settlements illegal, the colonies are getting bigger, the economic discrimination continues.”
Her series Bab-el shows a country in its entirety and its complexity. A country which, since time immemorial has been describes as the land of milk and honey; a country that since 1948 hasn’t ceased locking itself into certainties about its neighbours and its inhabitants. Valentine Vermeil envisaged the land as a gigantic tower of Babel before God decided to mix the languages and to separate the peoples so they can’t defy Him.
These photographs deliberately get away from the media treatment and the imaginary generated by this particular region. Their intention is to bring into the light that which brings individuals together such as links and belonging to a group, be it social, ethnic or religious.
These images alternate between portraits and landscapes, street scenes and religious fervour, modernity and ritual. Here, Valentine Vermeil has become attached to feminine figures, who illustrate the rapid changes the Israeli society has seen.
Valentine Vermeil, Bab-El
Published by Loco
35€
