« Bedrijven 2.0 | Main | Online launch »
Soldates
<
"At an age when social, sexual, and educational explorations are at their highest point, the life of an eighteen-year-old Israeli girl is interrupted. She is plucked from her home surroundings and placed in a rigorous institution where her individuality is temporarily forced aside in the name of nationalism. During the next two years, immersed in a regimented and masculine environment, she will be transformed from a girl to a woman, within the framework of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict. She is now a soldier serving her country, in a military camp amidst hundreds like her, yet beneath the uniform there is someone wishing to be noticed, listened to, and understood.
Almost fifteen years after my mandatory military duty ended, I went back to several Israeli army bases, using the medium of photography as a vehicle to re-enter this world. Serial No. 3817131 represents my effort to come to terms with the experiences of being a soldier from the perspective of an adult. My service had been a period of utter loneliness, mixed with apathy and pensiveness, and at the time I was too young to understand it all. Through the camera’s lens, I tried to reconstruct facets of my military life, hopeful to reconcile matters that had been left unresolved."
Misschien niet de beste reeks over Israelische soldaten, maar wel eentje die me opnieuw doet nadenken. Terugrijpen naar de 2 jaar dat ik in Tel Aviv woonde en me verwonderde over de jonge soldaten in de straten, kinderen nog.
Kinderen ook die me later aan de check-points tegen hielden en paspoort vroegen, en met mij grote aantallen Palestijnen.
Bange kinderen in een oorlog die hen overstijgt.
Rachel Papo's reeks is niet van het niveau van Adi Nes (foto's hier), maar vertelt wel een verhaal van een realiteit: jonge meisjes met geweren in een leger, in een land in oorlog.
Geen uitzonderling, wel een regel.
Posted on August 21, 2008
Digg this | 
Add to Delicious | Technorati reactions | Permalink | 
Comments (0)
