Hello.

Ordinary People in Extraordinary Situations

My name is Fraser and I am raising money to do a photographic project of life in Israel as well as writing about the experience.

I am a professional photographer (and videographer) with over 15 years of experience and I have lived in Scotland, near Edinburgh for almost 20 years. Currently, I am doing a one year Master degree in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa.

Having been a single dad for almost 20 years, I felt it was time to think about what I wanted to do with my life now my son is in the process of starting out with his life. The opportunity of studying in Israel came up and to my surprise I was offered a place on the course.

However, being a photographer and also a graduate in History, I was interested in using this unique situation as an opportunity to put into practice a personal project of photographing ordinary people living in Israel.

Obviously, post October 7, 2023, much of the news, and photographic interest has mainly been on the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, and now with the current situation with Iran.

However, I am more interested in photographing ordinary Israelis, across all the social and ethnic divisions - Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druses, etc. The surprise for many people is that ordinary life still goes on; people have jobs to go to, children still go to school, young people still do their sports, people go shopping, etc.

Even in wartime, life goes on. Yes, there are moments of great stress, but it's interspaced with lots of ordinary activities and boredom too. There's more of a sense of the pandemic lockdown in towns and cities throughout Israel. There are routines, somewhat curtailed, but people get by, and if there's missile alerts everyone seem to know where the shelters are.

To live in Israel is to share what the ordinary Israelis face everyday - Life, Love, and Laughter. The feelings and emotions can and often are larger than life - try standing in a supermarket queue listening to what seem to be an argument, only to find out the persons talking about their day! Although queues seem to be an alien concept in this part of the world!

Israel is baffling - it's supposed to be about the 5th happiest place to live in the world, yet it seem to be at war, surrounded by hostility. and yet (another contradiction), once you get used to their directness, and seemingly argumentative styles, they are friendly and helpful.

So? Why is it important to me? What makes me take this risky adventure when I could be putting up my feet and relaxing after years of being a single dad? What motivates me to come to Israel?

Obviously the Master degree was a motivation, but what motivated me to consider studying in Haifa in the first place? Israel is very much at the centre of the news, wars and troubles, and strifes; it seem that all the media reports is all so negative.

Yet, having been to Israel as a visitor a few times, I have found it a different world than how the media portrays it as. Yes, there are lots of problems, like many other nations. Israel, like all the other nations have struggled with the impact of the pandemic lockdown with many case of mental health lying beneath the surface.

But also, this is a personal journey of discovery. After all those years of being a single dad, I have the opportunity to study, meet new people, learn two languages (Hebrew and German - extremely challenging as I am about 85-90 percent profoundly hearing impaired), travel around getting involved with different ethnic groups. Writing about my experiences as well as capturing all the photographic images.

Obviously this all costs money - living costs, rent, travel, and food are the main costs. But by the end of 18 months living in Israel, I want to have written material and all the photographic images showing ordinary Israelis living and working in Israel. The ultimate aim is to raise awareness of Israel and all its complexities, not following the stereotypical view of this diverse country. I want to be able to have exhibitions of my work and thus to raise the cost of material to print, mount, and frame the images; plus I want to find a publisher to produce.

This project isn't about financial gain/loss, but about understanding the world better, about opening up new horizons for myself and using the opportunities to help understand the complexities of the world. Beyond this project, I hope to get recognition for future projects.

I hope this article will give you an insight of my plans and motivations.

Kind regards,

Fraser C Stewart