A FORM OF VIEW: As an Israeli my perception is chaotic; composed of mediated American culture, desert landscapes of childhood, and war, which became integral in my life. I was trained to see and understand the world through photographs. The motivation for this visual exploration is the strong influence American culture, specifically in the form of photography, had and still has on my Israeli origins.

Photography visually mapped reality since it started; a broken promise that we’ve made to ourselves by looking up to the medium as a neutral reflection of what visibly exists. Many of our understandings of reality, are being described by photographs and have never being experienced by us in person. Photographs have set the expectations for things we might experience in the future; at times we find ourselves considering what is real to be different from how it should be according to its own image.

My work is a conjunction between Israel and America. It focuses on similarities and differences between two different cultures and sets of geographical locations seen through my perspective as an “Americanized Israeli”.

I base my thesis on the recognition that our world is informed by images. Photographs represent and replace experiences, memories, landscapes and objects. Our past still exists in the form of photographs, and we will move on to a future which be is based on those photographs and the context through which we interpret them. Since the invention of the photograph, reality has become augmented by its own image. I am focusing my work at that point of friction.

Yoav Friedländer was born in Jerusalem and spent most of my life in my hometown town of Maale Adummim. Between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, on a limestone hill at the edge of the Judean mountains my perception of the world got its shape. After 18 years of preparations I’ve joined the army for a mandatory service of 3 years. I’ve started my service as a paratrooper and fulfilled my childhood dream of following my father’s footsteps. Photography, that by then became more than a hobby, was interrupted by the army service. Therefore I had to shift from combat position to an administrative one that allowed me to follow my heart. In the fall of 2007, only 4 months after finishing my mandatory service, I’ve started my B.A in Photography, at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem. After finishing my undergraduate degree I left Israel and moved to New York. Currently I am at my last year of an MFA in photography at the School Of Visual Arts.

The obvious similarity between photographs (as they are the result of recording the visible light) and reality had been confusing me since I’ve been a child. Photographs promised me a vision of a reality from the past or a visualization of a current reality that is geographically inaccessible to me. In a sense they where like a recipe to remake a world. And with the duration of time that world had been consumed by a future that turned to present. Photography as an entire medium visually mapped reality since it started. Its mapping of the visible was like a broken promise that we’ve made to ourselves by looking up to the medium as a neutral reflection of what visibly exists.

Photography altered the way I have experienced reality by providing me with a similar experience approximate to reality that is yet different. What exists is different from how it is mapped in a photograph. Many of our understandings of reality and our relation to objects, people and landscapes are being described by photographs and have never being experienced by us in person. Photography at times diffused itself so well into consciousness that we find ourselves considering what is real to be different from how it should be according to its own image.

Since the invention of the photograph, reality gradually became augmented by its own reflection. I am focusing my work at that point of friction.

www.yoavfriedlander.com