Insight

Bar-Am began taking photographs in the early 1950s and after some years of military service and work as a photographic reporter in Israel he became the photographic correspondent from Israel for the New York Times in 1968, a position he held until 1992.In 1974 he co-founded the International Center of Photography in New York and from 19771992 he was also head of the department of photography at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.Since 1968 Bar-Am has also been a correspondent for Magnum Photos.Of his photojournalism he writes, 'I keep my internal eye open for that other, metaphorical image that transcends illustration to achieve a wholeness of its own. I strive for the elusive entity that is both evidence and evocation, public record and personal vision.'Published for the exhibition in 2011 at Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin and Open Museum of Photography, Israel.English and German text.