Photojournalism - Professional

Behind the Wall

H. Allen Benowitz
USA

Nominee

"Behind the Wall"
This unique multiple exposure appears a contrast in locations; the young ghetto victim and, as may be perceived, his ghost mother and sister, were photographically captured from a wall display at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Tzfat, an artist colony village north of Haifa on the Mediterranean. The railway tracks down the center conjures up thoughts of the box cars hauling European Jews to concentration camps when, in fact, the village was built of stone by hand and the tracks transported the stones in small rail cars. The irony of this photograph is that it was created in Israel, 1991. [On a mission to Israel with the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, and visiting various historical and religious sites, I took this photo with a 35mm small Nikon camera. The last shot in the camera in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, and just before it became the first shot I took when visiting Tzfat, I noticed the depth and texture (my trademark) of the tunnel-like scene and decided to adjust the camera's sprocket setting and retake the frame as a multiple exposure, approximating the composition of same. When I returned to Miami, after developing the film, I was quite surprised by the 'lucky' result.]

Biography: H. Allen Benowitz, a self-taught award-winning cultural photographer, born and raised in Brooklyn, is a graduate from the Interboro Institute of Business in Manhattan. He migrated to Miami, in the 1960s, where he currently resides. As an evolution of his professional court reporting & legal videography career, the camera became a natural segue to photography. He has been featured in the ARTnews, The International Contemporary Artists art book, The Andrews Journal, SE Florida Style & Design, Marquis Who's Who, Art & Beyond magazines, and Musee du Louvre. His fine art photography...

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