Shai Ginott's photography exhibition ''From the Beginning'' was officially opened on Sunday, February 23rd at 12 hrs in Split.

Organizers: The Embassy of the State of Israel to Croatia, Jewish community of Split, Fotoklub Split

Mrs. Ana Lebl (President of Jewish Community of Split), Mr. Feđa Klarić (President of Fotoklub Split), Ambassador Yosef Amrani, Mayor of Split Mr.Ivo Baldasar

(Photo: Josip Ostojić)

Shai Ginott was born in Jerusalem in 1958. A biologist by profession, her
career as a fine arts and nature photographer began in 1984 as director of
photography of the Israel Nature Reserves Authority. Her photographs have
appeared in newspapers, periodicals and books, including the bestseller
Echoes of A Landscape (1992, MOD), which won the Gold Prize at the
Jerusalem International Book Fair in 1993; A Place in the Heart, Jerusalem
(1995, MOD); Israel Das Heilige Land (1995, Bruckmann); Israel (1998,
Bruckmann); and Spectacular Israel (1998, Hugh L. Levin Asc.), for which
she also served as photo editor. Shai Ginott teaches in various photography
workshops throughout Israel. Her photographs have been displayed in
exhibitions in Israel and abroad, among them the Barbican Centre in London
and the Olympus Gallery in Tokyo.
The encounter with nature is a complex experience. It is a deep multi-layered
one, like leafing through the pages of history, alternating between the world
of reality and an imaginary world, between what has occurred in the past
and what will happen in the future. The power of nature, light, earth, water,
heaven and the world of flora and fauna - is described dramatically in the
Biblical story of the creation. “Then God said: Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” (Genesis
1:6). The preservation of nature appears in the interaction between man and
nature and his existence as an integral part of it. “Then the Lord God took the
man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15).
The beauty of nature and the wisdom of creation are expressed in Psalms and
in the words of the Prophets “...I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.” (Isaiah 41:18)
Reading the Bible is like a journey. It is a journey of personal acquaintance
with the Land, with its landscapes and its ancient and new sites, with the
history of ages past and of recent times and archeological remains serving
as our milestones. All the photographs shown have been taken in Israel, the
Negev desert, the Mediterranean coast, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea,
the forests of the Galilee and the snowcapped peak of Mount Hermon; in
the hot and dry summer, in the rainy and cold winter, in the seasons of bird
migration and in the flowering spring. The photos in this exhibition portray
imaginary landscapes; they are composed of two photos superimposed on
one another. The photos are taken from the book Reflections, published by
MOD, 1999.