About Project

The fifth Israel Festival of Art Photography by immigrant photographers, “A New Eye on Israel 5 (2011)” will open at the beginning of December at the Gallery of the Association of Journalists (Beit Sokolov) in Tel Aviv, with the assistance of the Center for Immigrant Artists. As part of the five- year celebration, the festival will include two exhibitions at which will be displayed selected works from the last four years alongside new work of thirty exhibitors. Amongst this year’s participating photographers are immigrants from the USA, Australia, the U.K., Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, South Africa, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

Observing the achievements of these photographers over the last five years, we can be proud of the fact that this project has realized its objective. These talented photographers, selected by a jury and exhibiting at festivals, proudly display Israeli photography in countries overseas and have also contributed to the organization of this festival, thus rendering assistance to new exhibitors.

This national project, which is unique in Israel, began with the master- classes of Leonid Padrul. Upon conclusion of the master-classes, an exhibition called “A community beneath the palm trees”, was held in the Yarkon Park. The festival has today become an inseparable part of the Israeli cultural scene.  It has earned wide and comprehensive media coverage and pictures chosen from the exhibitions are to be found on show throughout Israel and abroad. One example is the thirty photographs chosen by the Liaison Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office from recent festivals for exhibition in eleven countries of the former USSR.  These photographs have thus far been displayed in Kiev, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Minsk and Kazakhstan.

The photographers participating in the Festival show Israel not only through the medium of differing photographic  techniques, but also from visual angles that are peculiar to those photographers in their capacity as immigrants from various countries around the world. The Festival provides both veteran and new photographers with the opportunity to exhibit their work to the general public without having to pay a fee and they are also given a catalogue that reproduces their work, a benefit of inestimable assistance in the promotion of their professional work.  The Festival is a non-profit venture intended solely for the advancement of immigrant artists and for the artistic documentation of the beauty of the Land of Israel for the benefit of future generations.

The promoters of the Festival (A New Eye on Israel), are the manager and curator of the project, the photographer Leonid Padrul, the producer Ellina Kwitkowski and the art director Yuliana Gorkorov, all of whom head the production agency, Kwitkowski Art.