Still Photo Series: Vacation Bible School
This series of images was taken over a period of four years in the Palestinian Territories and Israel.
Like a lot of people raised in the Bible Belt, the “Holy Land” held a lot of mystique for me, mostly because of my time spent in the church, surrounded by Biblical imagery and stories. The picture book illustrations we looked at during Vacation Bible School every summer and in Sunday school every week were particularly vivid. During an evangelical phase in my teens, I spent a lot of time reading the Bible, and as I imagined these characters living in a world two thousand years before me, they were not entirely dissimilar to the characters from my Vacation Bible School days: muted, pastel, and dreamy.
In my 30s, there was a four-year period when I was traveling back and forth between Bethlehem in the Palestinian Territories and where I resided the rest of the year in Brooklyn, New York. In the West Bank, I was covering the news for mostly leftist, activist publications, trying and failing to make a documentary about youth imprisonment, and sporadically working as a bar/bat mitzvah photographer for NYC families who had traveled to Israel for a special celebration. As an artist and storyteller, it was an overwhelming and heartbreaking place.
Sometimes the connection between Jesus, or other Biblical characters, and the Palestinians’ struggle for existence was so clear. Other times, for me, it was just a scene of grief, seeing images that were formerly full of childlike wonder reduced to occupation, land grabs, and unlivable conditions for Palestinians. And sometimes the scenes I saw before me were nothing more than an exploration for the kid who had grown up in the Bible Belt and was now seeing what had become of her Vacation Bible School pictures.
David and the IDF (1 Samuel 17:49)
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it…
-Al Khalil/Hebron
A typical afternoon in one of the most contested areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian boy who may or may not have thrown a stone at a soldier occupying the streets where he lives is stopped and interrogated.
The Lamb and The Firing Zone (Luke 1:14-16)
“He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord . . . He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
-Firing Zone 918, an Israeli military training zone in the Southern Hebron Hills, historically inhabited by several small settlements of Palestinian shepherds. They Firing Zone is also surrounded by Israeli settlements, outposts, barely recognized by the Israeli government, which — depending on who you ask — either considers them radical impediment or a necessary conduit. Both livestock and people living in the Firing Zone live out their days under the sounds of exploding artillery shells, helicopters, and settlers who destroy their tents and meager belongings.
The Holy Trinity (Luke 1:34 - 35)
Then said Mary unto the angel, ‘“How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” And the angel answered and said unto her, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
- Nazareth
The Land of Milk and Honey (Numbers 14:8)
If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. - Firing Zone 918, an IDF Military Training Base in the Southern Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Leah (Genesis 29)
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.
-Al Khalil/Hebron
A young Orthodox woman dressed as a bride during Purim.
But Were the Tourists Satisfied? (Luke 9:16-17)
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied.
-Sea of Galilee
The Lamb Isaiah 53:7
He was painfully abused, but he did not complain. He was silent like a lamb being led to the butcher, as quiet as a sheep having its wool cut off.
-Firing Zone 918
The Most Peace I've Felt (Exodus 14:27)
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place.
-Nuweiba, Egypt