Interview: Tomer Ganihar

Tomer Ganihar: Hiloola, 2001. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Holy Land X, 1999. 80x120 cm Photo

Can you introduce us to your exhibition?

This is a documentation of a social phenomena in Israel; the rave culture. Rave started in Goa and in the early 90's it came to Israel, but in Israel everything takes a twist into mysticism. Israel never had it's Woodstock or it's 60's youth culture, because at that time we were too busy surviving. So now the youth in Israel are building up a parallel way of living. They are saying no to the violence and instead they celebrate their youth in a new, you could say tribal, way at these huge trance parties which are taking place in the holiest days in the jewish calender. At these parties you can see ancient motifs like the star of David along with the young generation dancing to techno music.

So the rave culture is working within a local tradition?

Yes, in a way we invented a new kind of rave. It's about establishing an alternative way of life, saying that not everything in Israel must be about suffering and violence. It could be about peaceful, loving, enjoyable and sexy. It started out as an esoteric phenomenon and it's grown hugely into 30000 people at each event.

Tomer Ganihar: Equal Praying, 1999. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Wings, 2001. 120x180 cm Photo

You said that the original rave culture got a twist when it first came to Israel. In what way?

It's got a twist. It's about celebrating our heritage and the energy in the ancient landscape and costumes, but updating it to what's going on today. I always say that in Israel you party like there's no tomorrow, because sometimes literally there's no tomorrow. It's not just a party for the sake of the party, it's about insisting to party in order to show that there's a path of hope in this very difficult neighbourhood we call the Middle East. Because of the music, which is trance and techno music, there's no lyrics, so even arabs are participating in this because there's no language barrier, and they can identify with it.

I'm fascinated by the aesthetics of the ecstasy. We're not aware of it, but we're making a beautiful aesthetic statement. It's not like i.e. the Burning Man festival in the States, where people gather for four days to be very arty and then going back to their daily jobs. This is a lifestyle. It's a slang, it's a way to dress, it's the music.

I believe the job for a photographer is to suggest a new angle to see reality from. I try to shift the focus from that you see on CNN, who has too many items about disaster and conflicts, to something way more positive and optimistic. I want to show diversity: here you can see orthodox jews and very young secular jews together. It's taking the past and transforming it.

Tomer Ganihar: The Wood, 2003. 120x180 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Blue Trance, 2001. 120x180 cm Photo

Were you there as an observer or did you take part in the raves and the culture that surrounds them?

I was in the army when I heard a rumour about a little rave in the woods in the northern part of Israel. So I flied from the military base with a camera that belonged to the base. I never studied art, never studied anything - actually i was thrown out of three highschools - but I wanted to document this. It was ten people in the woods dancing for themselves, but for me it was a revelation to see that there was a parallel way of living somewhere in this very hostile environment. Slowly I became the official documenter of the raves.

Tomer Ganihar: We, 2001. 120x180 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Becoming a generation, 1996. 120x180 cm Photo

So people knew you?

I'm a big guy, but when I work you don't see me. It was sort of a dance: their dance and my dance. For me it was a superb artistic statement which I'm happy to have been able to capture in order to be a voice for that message.

It's an optical thing: we are all viewers for the composition of CNN, and for me it's very disturbing because I know better what's going on in Israel. There's more to the Middle East than the conflict. People tend to look at the Middle East and Israel as angles or demons. But we're neither angles nor demons, we're normal people just trying to establish a life like people else where. This is not black and white, it's in colour, and the truth is always somewhere in the middle. The world have to stop thinking about the region as an apocalyptic epic and start to look at the people themselves. I believe that the art world is betraying its mission: its mission is to reflect peoples life in a way that makes people excited and uplifted, but instead it has become a decadent, nihilistic and decorative money machine. I think it's very sad, and I think people want to believe again and want to be exited again from art.

This is an almost abstract piece, but what you really see here is hand clapping. Again it's about unity. It's called We, and it shows the ecstatic people. I claim to shoot the energy of reality, the soul of reality.

Tomer Ganihar: Sharing the light, 2002. 120x180 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Raving in Jerusalem, 1999. 80x120 cm Photo

This is a keywork for me. It's called Sharing the light, and it's not manipulated in anyway. I never had a concept or a project, I just came by this scenery. This is in the old quarter of Jerusalem, and you see an arab praying pointing towards Mekka, and in the other part of the picture you see the jewish minora. This pictures message is all in the light. It's about co-existence. I claim the light, which is what i try to capture, and the holy belongs to everybody, so let's share it instead of fighting over it.

Tomer Ganihar: Who knows?, 2001. 120x180 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Ways, 2001. 80x120 cm Photo

If you move past the politicians you'll get straight to the people, and what I try to show in pictures from my journeys, is that it's the same all over. I'm looking for what's common, not what separates. I've been twice in India. In this picture you see the Ganga river, and when they have festivals, the light, colours, ecstasy and the shapes are the same as when jews party.This is a piece that demonstrates the power of life in an almost brutal way. In hinduism they put candles and flowers on the river along with a dead body, and they believe that it floughts to eternity. The girl in the picture recollects the flowers to sell them again, and it shows you how basic and simple everything and every way of life is.

I'm not interested in taking a shark, put in formaldehyde and sell it for 25 million dollars. It has nothing to do with art for people. I believe in art, and this picture is ment to be taken serious.

Tomer Ganihar: Rest in Peace, 2006. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Hospital Party, 2006. 80x120 cm

The second room is very different from the first one...

Completely different in a way. This was the serie I from when Israel was in a war with Lebanon - every five year we have a war, so this is always current. I was studying in New York and I came to Israel right a way, because I felt a need to express my feelings about this war. I wasn't in a mood for partying, so my friend, who runs a big hospital in Israel, told me that they've developed these models for soldier paramedics of the Israelish army to practice on. For me that was a great angle to reflect the surreal side of this war from: To show how distorted, unnessesary and failed any war is. The mannequins represent that, and I found myself suddenly care more for the mannequins than for the people.

Tomer Ganihar: The Tear, 2006. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: The Face #1, 2006. 80x120 cm Photo

This is a piece called The Tear. I caught this soldier crying because the bodies here represent real bodies. Only real bodies are killing and getting killed, while here the mannequins are dying, so here the two worlds collide. Basically this was a statement about reaching out for help. I don't do journalistic photography, so I'm not taking photos of tanks and soldier, I choose a metaphor for it. We see so many pictures of disasters so we tend to think that it's just another happening, but when we see the mannequins it brings out some feelings, because we never saw that exact metaphor used before. You can't tell which war zone it is, but you can tell there's something going on.

In the Mannequin pictures you didn't manipulate with the pictures either?

No, I don't manipulate or translate. I have no mandate to interfere in the situation. My mandate is to capture and reflect it, hopefully in a beautiful and good way. Also, I have no desire to manipulate, because reality is always much better than anything you could imagine. It's just more interesting and more beautiful.

When I first went to New York I met a jewish curator who was very surprised to see my work, and she told me it was great photoshopped works. I showed her the negatives, and she said that it couldn't be true, because there's no such colours or events in Israel. She didn't believe it, because our minds are so trained to eat what people gives us. People are afraid of changes, also changing their minds, so people will rather see Israel and the Middle east as a cliché; their are either for the jews or for the arabs. And both sides are wrong! I don't want people to be for Israel and against the palestinians, I want people to look at the situation in a broader perspective. If people want to have an opinion they need to study it first, and it's the traditional job for at photographer to suggest a new angle. Being an artist is a public service.

Tomer Ganihar: Help, 2006. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: You are Hurting Me, 2006. 80x120 cm Photo

Photographers like me is a dying species. I'm using an analogue camera, films and darkrooms, and I will never shift to digital technology. I feel that it's faking the moment and distorting the reality, because you can manipulate it. There's no soul in digital photography. Photography is about the situation, about the one moment where the good shot is possible. For my first show ever in Tel Aviv I took a lie detector test while saying: "I have never used photoshop", because it's important to me that people believe in my pictures.

Painters recreate reality on their canvas - I don't! I'm out there and take part of the reality. My camera is one with reality, it captures the light and the moment in a frame. So I'm not recreating reality like a painter does. It's a privilege to be a photographer, because it's also a big responsibility. I think that those who understands it the best are not fine art photographers, but journalist photographers. I work the same way as they do: I don't go to the war zone, but I go to the front of reality. They risk their lives, I risk my soul in order to capture the truth.

So you see yourself as a channel that the truth about reality can be experienced through?

The title of the show is Channel of light. I'm a channel - nothing less, but nothing more either.

If you do art for yourself or about yourself it will eventually be very boring. Photography needs people to start living again. It's starting to come alive again when you see it. I'm not obsessed with an idea or a concept. For me it's about capturing what is there.

Tomer Ganihar: I am, 2007. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: The Hint, 2007. 80x120 cm Photo

The press release tells a lot about your idea about capturing the light. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

In Israel even a kiss is a political act. Everything is involved in the conflict, and I try to show something different. The key factors in my work are the light, the colours and the shapes, and those things has no message except themselves. I go everywhere in the world to capture the same thing. I try to find something that unify us. Finding out what separates us is very easy: he's black, she's yellow, he's a jew, she's muslim...

I try to get to the core of photography, which is light, movement, shapes ect. - same things that unify us all. I want to get to the rock bottom of this media. Just like there's cave painting, I try to do cave photography, and I think the essence of art should be exiting and should rise our spirit.

To say that art should rise our spirit sounds somehow naive, but I'm not a naive person. You can not be naive in Israel. I show the people - not their statements and not as clichés. We like to think that things are very complicated, but the core of the people are the same, so if you see that, co-existence is doable, and art is where it should happen. Art in galleries, museums and on the streets are where people can meet. They can't meet in the parliament or in the warzones. People can get together and talk in one language which is art. I think that after seeing a good show, you're not in the mood to kill anybody. And if you share good art with somebody it's like sharing the raveparties. When you see good art you're not becoming a better person, but you capture this knowledge in you sight, and it's like a torch that you give on to others who see you. It's an ongoing dynamic of seeing, and this is the essens of art. It's a very powerful tool.

It's a privilege to be a photographer and I couldn't be more proud of the story I'm trying to bring to people. I think that right now commited art is needed more than ever, but unfortunatly the artist throws himself into this monstrous cash machine, that has nothing to do with the people. Just to enter a museum in New York costs 25 dollars, so their only convicing the convinced. What about the crowd that can't go in?

The art has become so decadent . When I see art of the mayor artists today, I think to myself that it's a good buisness for the artist, but as a viewer i don't feel anything. Nobody cares about the viewer, they just care for the bank manager, the artist and the dealer.

Tomer Ganihar: The Parting of the Red Sea, 1998. 80x120 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: The face, Israel, 1999. 80x120 cm Photo

Let's say you didn't have to take part in the art world. Do you think it would be possible to create outside of that system?

I call myself a trojan horse on the red carpet. Being focused on how to change the art world is not nesessary, because it's reality that needs to be changed. It would be stupid for me to try to change the art world, because that is not where my energy should be spend. I don't like this world at all, I just use it to get a message out; It's a tool. You can use this tool in a bad or nihilistic way. For instanse when I see Jeff Koons I think: "Good for him, but what about all the people who are not Jeff Koons?" They are left behind, because he don't care. I find it grotesque. It's a fraud. I don't make art for the art world. I come from Israel, you know, I see things in perspective. I try to remember that what I do is public service. If I wanted to earn fast money I could be a salesperson or work at Wall Street. There's many ways to make money and they're all faster than doing art.

But you get a good response from the art world exhibiting all over the world...

There's a good response. People are fascinated when they see something different. If you know how to play your narrative right people will listen, and every day of their life they've heard about Israel, and most of the time it has been bad things. I'm trying to make a de-mystification of the region, because everybody has an opinion. They may never have seen neither an arab or a jew, but for sure they have an opinion about the Middle East. Everybody's very emotional about the conflict, but their emotions are just a collection of misinformation. They're building a fantasy made out of newspapers, and usually it has nothing to do with what's really going on. Israel is like a lightening device; everybody blames us for everything. If there's troubles somewhere in the world they blame Israel, and usually it's because something way more serious lies beneath it; their own problems, pride, shame...whatever! It would be amusing if it wasn't so dangerous, 'cause come on, you know nothing about it! Same thing goes out to the right-winged jewish community in New York; they know nothing about what it's like to be part of a new generation in Israel today. They as well are afraid to change their point of view. But if you suggest a change or a new angle to view things from, and you do it peacefully through art, then they tend to listen.

Thank you.

Tomer Ganihar: A Day at the Vatican Museum, 2007. 120x180 cm Photo		Tomer Ganihar: Couples, 2007. 120x180 cm Photo

Tomer Ganihar: Kaddish (The Day After the Bomb), 1997. 180x120 cm Photo