Once during Harel Stanton’s military service in Israel, an officer was “screaming at us” for some reason, he said.
Stanton whipped out a camera and took a picture — which resulted in his being confined to the base that weekend instead of being allowed to go home.
It just goes to show, said Stanton during a telephone interview from Israel, that “since a very young age, everywhere I go, the camera comes with me.” Indeed, this renowned Israeli “ethnographical photographer” has carried his camera throughout Israel, capturing its landscapes, its people, and the variety of its Jewish religious life.
Stanton, 37, will be bringing some of his discoveries to Milwaukee Sunday, Oct. 23, through Thursday, Oct. 27. At various sites in the community, he will present his multimedia lecture-slides-music program, titled “The 1,000 Faces of Israel.”
“The idea is to try to show what Israel is to me,” Stanton said. “Israel is a unique mosaic, … a tiny country with young and old, liberals and conservatives, Jews and non-Jews.”
It is still a marvel to him, he said, that “it is a 45-minute drive from the liberal and modern city of Tel Aviv, Israel’s cultural capital, to the 3,000 years of history in the religious and political capital of Jerusalem.”
“I am trying to show the two aspects — modern and old Israel — in one place,” he said.
A ‘living show’
The show has proven an effective means of getting people “engaged with Israel,” said Alon Galron, Israeli emissary to Milwaukee and director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, which is the primary sponsor of Stanton’s visit.
“Normally, what one sees in the news media [about Israel] is only conflict,” Galron said.
“What Stanton does is, he brings the beauty of everyday life in Israel” which can enable his audiences “to connect to Israel again in an emotional way.”
Stanton has had direct experience of this, he said. He said he was the first Israeli to speak at Concordia University in Montreal after a riot there in September 2002 forced the cancellation of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech.
“What makes my presentation unique is showing pictures can touch people’s hearts,” Stanton said. “When the heart is touched, the mind can relax, and people are willing to listen and accept.”
“The 1,000 Faces of Israel” has three themes, Stanton said: landscapes, people and Jewish ceremonies. Moreover, it is “a living show” in that Stanton is constantly adding new images.
Stanton was born in Ramat Gan in 1968. His father was an avid amateur photographer who “introduced me to the camera.”
According to his Web site, Stanton studied photography at the Israeli College of Art. He said that he worked as a photojournalist, but found that “I didn’t like doing pictures for the fashion section or the food section.”
“I am more interested in people’s lives,” he said. “If I had to choose between photographing a fashion show or a funeral, I would rather go for the funeral because of the emotional part, to try to capture the moment, to bring out the essence of the moment, to express what was going on, to try to tell the story.”
This is why he became an “ethnographical photographer” who has filmed rituals and ceremonies of cultures in both Israel and dozens of other countries. “This is where the emotions and excitement are,” he said.
Stanton will give two presentations open to the general community: one on Monday, Oct. 23, 4:30 p.m., at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School; the second on Thursday, Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Sinai.
The events are co-sponsored by Sabina and Howard Hack, Barbara Kohl-Spiro and Herzl Spiro, Barbara Stein, Brigitte and Daniel Chudnow, Betsy and Michael Green, Jody Kaufman Loewenstein and the federation’s Young Leadership Division, with a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation, the federation’s endowment development program.
Stanton is also scheduled to speak at Chai Point Senior Living Apartment Complex, Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
For more information, call the Israel Center, 414-390-5722.
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