--- description: Photographer Yaakov Israel set out to document the people and landscapes of the country that shares his name. His new book tells a story of daily life in a land with a deep history and uncertain future. title: Photographs of People and Landscapes in Israel - TIME LightBox image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e3dd49d43eeaef1/69879fb7cd1bba20f76f7369/yaakovisraelqmwd34.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Land of Stories and Myths: Yaakov Israel Photographs His Homeland by [Ishaan Tharoor](/author/ishaan-tharoor/) ## Ishaan Tharoor Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 22, 2012 8:00 AM CUT  The Man On The White Donkey, HaBiqah, 2006 The Man On The White Donkey, HaBiqah, 2006Yaakov Israel by [Ishaan Tharoor](/author/ishaan-tharoor/) ## Ishaan Tharoor Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 22, 2012 8:00 AM CUT The land upon which the nation of Israel sits is steeped in stories and myths. It’s ancient, holy; all three major faiths that took root here see salvation in its domes, its olive groves, its cracked earth. It’s a land where people still seek the messiah. In one Orthodox Jewish messianic tradition, He will return riding a white donkey. On a blistering summer’s day in 2006, Yaakov Israel peered through the heat waves and saw, emerging in the distance, a man atop a white donkey. “He materialized,” says Israel, a photographer based in Jerusalem, “like a fata morgana,” a mirage. This man on a donkey was no illusion — nor, most would contest, was he the messiah. Instead, his arrival from the desert and into Israel’s lens gave the photographer a guide for a photo project he has worked on for the past decade, crystallized in a new book, _The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey_. Israel’s pictures are the product of years of wanderings in Israel, in the Occupied Territories and in the spaces in-between, seeking to document a vision of its people and landscapes away from the noise of an intractable political conflict and the rumbling news media that watches it. In the spirit of U.S. photographers who chronicled their journeys through the American vastness, Israel would wake up early in the morning and head off in a direction, photographing what he saw and whom he encountered along the way. Of course, unlike in the U.S., Israel, traveling in the country that bears his name, would invariably run into one or two political borders by nightfall. And so his gaze dwells on the quiet of certain moments — “the small clues for me that exist in each image,” as he puts it — that tell a story of daily life in a land whose deep history and uncertain future are woven through with gestures that are at once religious, political and inescapably human. A girl wades into the Sea of Galilee, her arms held wide as if choosing between crucifixion and baptism. Spools of barbed wire are followed in the book by tangles of thorns and a sea of dandelions; men with guns look on, at times curious, at times detached. A backpacker sleeps. The hills glow and soak in sunlight. Israel emphasizes the everyday nature of his subjects — “these are people I’m just bumping into every time I go out.” Often, they would go out of their way to accommodate Israel, posing patiently, introducing him to family and friends, pointing to new vistas for his camera. In one scene, a pair of Arab workers who had intended to go to work choose instead to hang out with Israel and share their breakfast with him. “These episodes of human courtesy happened again and again,” says Israel. “For me, these small things tell another kind of political story.” The man on the white donkey, a Palestinian farmer, was no different. In 45 degrees Celsius heat, he agreed without hesitation to participate in Israel’s project, desperately trying to keep his steed still until an image became clear. _Yaakov Israel is a Jerusalem-based photographer. See more of his work_ [_here_](http://yaakovisrael.com/ "undefined")_._ The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey _will be available in the U.S. this fall. The project recently won the_ [_PhotoEspaña_](http://www.phe.es/ "undefined") _Descubrimientos (PHE12 Discoveries) 2012 Award._  Nili asleep, Nebi Musa, 2010 Yaakov Israel  Sinkholes, Ein Gedi, 2011 Yaakov Israel  Bunker, Northern Judean Desert, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Morning Prayer, The Dead Sea Hilton, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Zohar With Pied Kingfisher, 2010 Yaakov Israel  Bunker, Western Galilee, 2011 Yaakov Israel  Military Structure, Jerusalem Hills, 2006 Yaakov Israel  The Sea of Galilee, 2004 Yaakov Israel  Ali, Nebi Musa, 2010 Yaakov Israel  Painting in Stairwell, Jerusalem, 2008 Yaakov Israel  The Man On The White Donkey, HaBiqah, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Soldiers on Coffee Break, Kibbutz Yad Mordecai, 2010 Yaakov Israel  Fence, HaBiqah, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Tangled Vegetation, Negev, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Malachi & Gur Arie Yehuda, Jerusalem, 2007 Yaakov Israel  Sunshades, Ein Gedi, 2011 Yaakov Israel  Kiosk, The Dead Sea, 2011 Yaakov Israel  Talia, Haifa, 2008 Yaakov Israel  Gateway, Metzokei Dragot, 2010 Yaakov Israel  Bedouin, Allenby Bridge, Jordanian border 2006 Yaakov Israel  Banyan Tree, Caesarea, 2007 Yaakov Israel  Crates on the Roof, Northern Judean Desert, 2006 Yaakov Israel  Military Barrier, The Judean Desert, 2011 Yaakov Israel  Riad and Mahmoud, Almog Crossroad, 2010 Yaakov Israel ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3790936/land-of-stories-and-myths-yaakov-israel-photographs-his-homeland/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3790936/land-of-stories-and-myths-yaakov-israel-photographs-his-homeland/"},"headline":"Land of Stories and Myths: Yaakov Israel Photographs His Homeland","datePublished":"2012-08-22T08:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:41:00.001Z","description":"Photographer Yaakov Israel set out to document the people and landscapes of the country that shares his name. 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