Altneuland

A journey through time and place in Israel. The name of the series ("Altneuland" = Old-New Land) refers to Theodor Hertzl's book from 1902.

It tells the story of two men, one Austrian and one German, on a journey to a Pacific island. On their way, they stop in Palestine.

After 20 years on the island, they sail back to Europe and stop again in Palestine. There, they discover a land drastically transformed, showcasing a free, open, and cosmopolitan modern society, and boasting a thriving cooperative industry based on state-of-the-art technology.

In the two decades that passed, European Jews rediscovered and re-inhabited their Altneuland, reclaiming their own destiny in the Land of Israel. In this series, black and white photos from 1926 to 1979 were collected and the exact spots where they were taken across Israel were located. The photos were held in front of the camera and a wider photo was taken, with the colored 2010 reality continuing where the black and white photo ends. In some places, it appears as if nothing has changed, while in others, the buildings have changed their purpose and the "black and white people" seem strangely transplanted into today's reality. The photos portray 3 different times: the old black and white photos, the present-colored photos, and the time that has passed between capturing both photos.

The third time mentioned is not a visual one, but a mental and emotional dimension, filled in by the knowledge we have of the dramatic changes that have occurred between the two times.