War & Peace

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I didn’t plan on putting up a lot of my older stuff, but you know how plans change.  I wanted this to be my first post because it’s my favorite image I’ve taken.

Shot May 15, 2007, in Jerusalem at the Western Wall, the last standing wall of the 2nd Temple finished by Herod the Great — the one mentioned so much in the New Testament Gospels.  It’s currently the most sacred place for the Jewish people on Earth.  Here is an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) Soldier and an Orthodox Jewish man, both praying at the wall.

It’s not technically perfect, but then again what great art is?  But it has a richness to me that is hard to describe.  For me, it represents a lot about religion with which I have a lot of history.

It also represents that sort of two sided-ness of reality — there is war here, and there is peace.  And yet under the surface, which one of these men want peace more?  The IDF soldier or the Orthodox Jew?  You can’t say without speaking with them.  So we find a sort of paradox here with these two men — both in a way are men of war.  Both in a way are men of peace.  Yet you’d never guess by looking at their clothing.

So much more here for me, but I’ll leave it to you.