(#17) The Art of Bearing Witness: a perspective on photojournalism in the time of war
“It's hard to focus on the art when so much of it is connected to the controversy. Welcome to my life.”
Heavy artillery booms, planes and helicopters roar overhead. Debris crunches under footsteps, the smell of ash and death lingers in the air, gasps travel through bullet holes. Shouts from thousands of people call for the return of hostages, peace, and democracy. A collective grief ties souls together. It is wartime.
Among these scenes, a camera shutters, discreetly preserving moments of a history unfolding. Behind the camera is Shanie Roth, an Israeli-American photojournalist and photographer based in Tel Aviv, Israel and a close friend of mine. I have long admired her photography and have been lucky enough to witness her craft develop in real time. Her portfolio has evolved from street photography captured on her travels through countries such as Turkey, Morocco, Italy, and the United States to a gripping focus on the political unrest and the effects of war in Israel. Her work covering protests over the last two years in Israel has been published internationally. I view Shanie’s photography as an important endeavor that intimately documents the discontent, grief, and, above all, humanity of a war-torn region and forces viewers to confront the complexities of war. So, Shanie and I sat down (virtually) and had a discussion about the art of photography, the power of photojournalism, the complex realities of people’s lives not represented in the media, and the responsibility she feels as a storyteller.
The protests:
When looking at her photography from January 2023 to now, protests emerge as a constant theme. Shanie documents the development of the protests from anti-Netanyahu policies to calls to bring home hostages, secure a cease-fire, and conduct new elections. Her focus at the protests is distinctive because she not only captures the protest itself but the individuals who attend–their emotion, body language, and spirit. Shanie tells me, “When people protest, it’s automatically a passionate group of people. In terms of photography, when you photograph humans, it makes for an interesting photo if your subjects are passionate. Their body language and emotion tell a much more compelling story. It feels important to convey the protest’s message to a larger audience but also the individual’s. Each person has their own story and reason to be there which is interesting to me as a photographer. “ In looking at the images of protests, the viewers become one with the crowds of thousands of people as if they too are there. Sound begins to fill in: shouts from megaphones and the pounding of drums. Body heat radiates, the energy is palpable.
I am fascinated with how Shanie captures these photos. This is not a controlled studio space. Once the moment has passed, it is gone. She says the key is being patient, watching her environment, having an idea of what type of photograph she wants, and also luck. An image that stands out to me is of the women dressed in red Handmaid’s Tale attire: “There were a few protests where the women started dressing up as handmaids against the judicial reform signifying a loss of independence. They weren’t at every protest so I was going to each protest to find them because they would make a stunning image.” Shanie recounts to me how she saw the women in the distance and ran to a street median to get in position. As the women swiftly descended down the street, she snapped the photos. The images are stunning–some of my favorites of hers. The composition of the women in lurid red cloaks and stark white bonnets is expertly framed with the flags in the background running parallel to them. We can only see the faces of two of them women. Their presence is haunting. In a sobering turn, documenting the number of weeks of pro-democracy protests becomes counting the days since the hostages from the October 7th attack were taken.
Hostage Rallies:
Fast forward to ten months later. Shanie stands among a crowd at “the world’s saddest birthday”-- a rally for Kfir Bibas, who turned one as a hostage. She roams the crowd and finds a father and a young son. As the father picks up the son and holds him in his arms, she captures a photo. This image represents a somber reality. The unsmiling young boy dressed in light clothing locks eyes with the viewer. You can feel the softness of his cheek that presses against his father’s neck. The composition takes a turn as the viewers’ eyes travel down and find a rifle hanging from the father’s back, nearly disguised by his dark clothing. A seemingly tender moment is juxtaposed with a gruesome reality of grief, violence, and uncertainty. According to Shanie, the father is likely a soldier in the reserves on a brief leave. He chooses to spend his time with his son at the rally. The boy who is just a toddler is not innocent to the fact that someone younger than he is is a hostage and that his father is fighting in the conflict. Not even the young are left unaffected.
Shanie regularly attends and photographs the rallies demanding a deal be reached to return the hostages and end the conflict. She tells me, “In Tel Aviv there is a big square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art that sits right in front of the IDF headquarters. This is the Hostage Square. It was chosen very intentionally.” Since the start of the war, fewer people have gone to the rallies, but Shanie volunteers her time to the hostages’ families and hopes to keep the focus on the hostages through her photography. As with the political protests, Shanie emphasizes the individuals amongst the crowds, many of them regular attendees. We bear witness to their tears and grief, hugs and anger. We also observe the visual language of the protests. Some protestors lie next to pools of blood or dress to emulate hostages. Others carry signs that mock Netanyahu. Most commonly we see posters demanding the return of hostages. Family members of the hostages carry signs of their loved-ones' faces and speak to the crowd.
Bearing witness: the Kibbutz and Nova Festival sites
Shanie had the distinct opportunity to photograph the sites of the October 7th attack as an international delegation photographer. She tells me that since the sites are considered active military zones, most Israelis have not gone. She felt it was her responsibility to bear witness. The experience of visiting the sites was a difficult one: “As an Israeli, I was nervous because this is where, in the most intimate way, people like me were killed, slaughtered, and raped. But also as an American, I see all the hate and propaganda online and I want to be a set of eyes.”
With the delegations, Shanie traveled to Kibbutz Nir Oz, Kibbutz Kfaf Aza, and the site of the Nova Festival–three of the locations attacked on October 7th. At Kibbutz Nir Oz, she toured the neighborhoods with a survivor of the attack. The images she captures are devastating and horrifying. The carnage in the images is so loud it brings about ear-ringing deafness and dizziness. The rubble of Gaza, blood stained walls, bullet holes, the smell of smoke lingering in the air. How should someone go about telling this delicate and heavy story?
In most of her photography, Shanie builds a story, but here, the location does the talking. “This is not my story to tell. This was my time to be listening,” she tells me. She captures homes crumbling from blast and fire, marked in spray paint, signs affixed to the walls describing who was killed and who was taken hostage. I asked Shanie how she decided to capture such devastation. She tells me she decided to focus on the reactions of the members of the delegation. A photograph that stands out to me is of a woman stepping over rubble in a home looking down, hand coming to her chest. We can feel the grief, yet among the darkness, the woman’s Star of David necklace catches the light.
I am lucky enough to know Shanie well. She is a thoughtful, hard-working, and empathetic person and this shines through her photos. The affective quality of her work sets her photos apart and reflects the responsibility she feels in telling these stories. While viewers living far away from the region can try to turn away from the conflict, Shanie documents the reality of a people intimately, demanding attention, in hope that what connects us as humans will prevail.
You can find more of Shanie’s photography on her Instagram @shanierothphotography.
