Gil Ben Hador

Formerly a kibbutz member, a man of the land, an agronomist with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Agriculture, specializing in plant diseases. A second career – providing personal IT services to small and medium-sized businesses. He has always held a camera, but in the past ten years he has been engaged in photography as an art form, participating in courses, workshops, and photographic journeys. He has exhibited in group exhibitions and solo exhibitions. Among them: featured in a solo exhibition as a guest artist at the 2022 Tel Aviv Photography Festival, a solo exhibition at the Gederah Local Council space, and a variety of group exhibitions: at the Photography Festival in 2021 and 2022, at the Gederah Regional Council with the Gederah Photographers Club, at Ben Ami Gallery with a variety of artists, and more. The artist's passion evolves from the things that move him—those around him, and those within him. Those things that evoke emotion in him, that drive him to ask questions. Questions about the connection between himself and those elements, about his connection with memory—both that which exists physically in the body and that which lives only in the imagination. He asks questions about the future that awaits him, and already resonates; in the image of his father, as it is etched within him; in the image of his late wife; sometimes also through objects—those items that were once essential, and have now become something no longer needed, something internalized. Like the body at the moment of death. Gil touches on places that bring with them a range of sensations—from the need for embrace and immersion, to the desire to escape as far as possible—and within this space he has many questions. Questions that deal with the tension between past and future, life and death, on both the personal and the social plane. Gil carries figures from his family and his immediate surroundings, whether they are alive or not, and also the rope—that element that disrupts the sense of calm, that separates him from an unattainable serenity. Within the world of photography as a primary medium, the artist is multidisciplinary; he uses a variety of techniques to express his feelings and thoughts. He projects images again and again to create complex works, he integrates different images into one another using both analog and digital means, together or separately, he 3D-prints components necessary for photographed scenes, and more and more... Gil is in his seventies, yet looks at the world through the eyes of a young man at the beginning of his artistic path, and expresses himself on any subject he desires without fear or restraint.