Alex Levac (; born 1944,

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

) is an Israeli

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

and

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

photographer. He was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for photography in 2005.Haaretz photographer Alex Levac wins Israel Prize By Smadar Sheffi and Yulie Khromchenko, Ha'aretz 18.02.0

/ref>

Youth and studies

Alex Levac was born in

in 1944. After graduating in philosophy and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

and in photography from the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...

Career

He began working as a freelance photographer in Brazil from 1971 to 1974. In 1974–79, he worked in London and later in Los Angeles (1979–81). In 1981, he returned to Israel and settled in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.Our Country, Photographs by Alex Levac 1 Apr 2005
/ref> Levac is married to ''

Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two ...

'' journalist Sherry Ansky and they have one child. In 1983, he became staff photographer for the daily '' Hadashot'' and since 1993 he is staff photographer for the Israeli daily ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

''. In 1984, a photograph he took during the hijacking of a Tel Aviv bus disproved the official account of events and led to a long running scandal known as the Kav 300 affair. Levac has participated in a number of exhibitions, among them Amazon Indians, held at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

; the

Ein Harod Ein Harod () was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Israel's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz HaMeuhad. In 1923 part of the ...

Israeli Biennale of Photography; and the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

in Jerusalem. He published five books.

Awards

* In 1993, Levac received the Rita Poretzky Award of Photography from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. * In 2001, the Israeli Foreign Ministry chose Levac to represent Israel in the international exhibit "Our Country". * In 2005, he won the

, for photography. The judges who chose to award the prize emphasized the humanitarian perspective of his work. "No other photographer is as involved as Alex Levac in the Israeli experience," they wrote.

Quotes

"I don't take a lot of pictures. I see things as though through a sieve. The choice of a specific moment is mine. I enjoy photography. It forces me to look at marginal things as well. There are wonderful situations where the photographic potential is enormous, and pictures truly leap to the eye, but most pictures are obtained by hard and patient work. I would like all my pictures to be great, full of historical, social, and anthropological meaning, but very few reach that level. Many times the result is simply anecdotal, visual amusements, the justaposition of bits of reality that usually are not connected to one another. Some are complex, others are simple, but they always tell something about us."

Published works

*''Eye to Zion'', edited by David Tartakover, published by

Am Oved Am Oved ("A Working People") is an Israeli publishing house. History Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first editor in chief. It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publ ...

, 1994. *''Tel Aviv Serenade'', with poems by

Nathan Alterman Nathan Alterman (; August 14, 1910 – March 28, 1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. Though never holding any elected office, Alterman was highly influential in Labor Zionist politics, both before and after the es ...

, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000. *''Our country'', Introduction: Daniel Ben-Simon, published by the Ministry of Defense, 2000. *''Like a dog'', edited by David Tartakover, Keter Publishing, 2005. *''Israel: the twenty-first century'', Carmel Press, 2008.

Exhibitions

*2018: ''Oh Jerusalem'', Gallery Bernd A. Lausberg, 16 February – 9 March 2018 *2018: ''Lost in Translation'', Haifa Museum, 4 August 2018 – 17 February 2019 *2018: ''Israeli Street Moments'', Leica Gallery

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, 2 November 2018 – 6 January 2019

References

External links

A collection of Alex Levac's photographs

Israel, With a Knowing Wink – An article about Levac in NYT's photography blog

Israel Prize Official Site – CV of Alex Levac (in Hebrew)Alex Levac Collections
on the Digital collections of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa {{DEFAULTSORT:Levac, Alex Israeli Jews Israel Prize in photography recipients Israeli photojournalists Israeli photographers 1944 births Living people Tel Aviv University alumni Artists from Tel Aviv Street photographers Journalists from Tel Aviv