On the following pages you'll find a selection of my uncle's photos, mostly taken in and around the
Jerusalem area, including some photographed from a plane window while on a commercial flight
between Jerusalem and Eilat. Hopefully we'll have more photos scanned soon.
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Welcome to Uncle Itzik's gallery!
Self-portrait with his IXUS mini-camera
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My Uncle Itzik has taken many interesting photographs over the years. The problem is that most
of them are in boxes and cupboards in his house, rather than somewhere where others can enjoy
them. This is the reason that I decided to make him a homepage.
Our family has always had an artisitic streak. Great grandfather, Hayim Moshe, had a talent
for making intricate paper cuts and was a violin virtuoso. His sisters Leiah and Hasha were
excellent writers, especially when it came to poetry. Leiah's daughter Sima Yidis,
was and is a wonderful singer, who though over 90 years old can still hit the highest of notes.
However Uncle Itzik is the first photographer in the family and also the first to have any formal art
training.
It's unlikely that you'll have seen his
work anywhere though because most of it lives on the walls and in the closets of his house.
Rather than pursue a career as a painter he worked in the family dress business as a designer.
Central Jerusalem
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Itzik studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London during the 1960s. While doing all the run of
the mill art courses, life drawing, basic techniques, etc, he chose to focus on
modernist and surreal paintings of both the real world and fantasy creatures which were the fruit
of his imagination. He had some interesting characters, alien creatures, imaginary trees and curious creatures of all sorts.
He was not very interested in photography as a student, preferring paint, ink and pencils to
film. About a decade ago though he was given a polaroid camera and thus began an interest in
photography. Over the years he has graduated to other cameras, my favourite being a tiny IXUS
which is small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, yet which includes a small zoom and various other
useful features. He has now added boxes of photos to his cupboard loads of paintings and drawings.
Uncle Itzik has always been drawn to odd angles, interesting patterns, shapes and abstract designs. Where other
people might just see say an electricity pylon, he sees a network of shapes, numerous triangles,
symmetric lines and harsh angles all coming together to form geometric patterns which have an
artistic merit of their own, beyond their being part of a larger image. He is not simply
photographing the electricity pylon, rather he is capturing these patterns on film. Initially he
might just have taken this pattern and painted it, highlighting the design with colours. Today
he is interested in photographing it and thus creating something with many levels of meaning, both
the simple photograph and the abstract design.
Itzik enjoys photographing a variety of images, from fly on the wall shots of a busy city
to abstract pictures. He has always been interested in architecture and the building trade, often focusing on odd
buildings or construction sites. While most interested in urban scenes, he has become increasingly fascinated by patterns and designs in nature
and this has led him to photograph the natural world as well.
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Copyright 2000 by Yitzhak
Katz. Photographs on this page by Yitzhak Katz.
Last updated 20 November 2000.
