The Environment through Young Eyes

The photography exhibition, “Appearance”, on display at the entrance to Ramat Hanadiv, is the impressive outcome of an educational programme that was held throughout the year in four schools in the region. The intriguing photographs, accompanied by texts written by the students, allow us to understand for a moment how young adults from different communities and cultures view and understand their surroundings. The exhibition will be displayed here throughout the year and you are warmly invited to visit it.

In her childhood, Amit Nahum, a 10^th-grade student in the art study track at Ort Binyamina High School, played in the chassis of a bus in the middle of a forest in Aviel. ‘During certain months the entire forest is full of cyclamens that also grow inside the bus, so that it looks as if the bus is an integral part of the forest. Currently there is a plan to build a skate park on the place where the bus stands; this will probably lead to the removal of the bus and the felling or transfer of trees, which will significantly change the forest. I hope that the planned project will maintain the character of the forest and added to it, just like the bus.’

Amit wrote this text next to a photograph she took of the bus, which is displayed in the exhibition “Appearance” at the entrance to Ramat Hanadiv, together with dozens of other photographs, each of which tells its own story.

Besides the connection between Jewish and Arab children, there is also an interesting connection between different fields of study

Taking Photographs to Express an Opinion

Four schools and about 80 students participate each year in the educational programme, “Appearance”, a partnership between Ramat Hanadiv and schools in the region that is now in its fifth year. The programme focuses on issues of sustainability, and the challenges we face. The students go out into their nearby environment and take photographs that express an opinion, show, communicate and talk about change. Every photograph is accompanied by text written by the students as a personal interpretation of what they photographed.

The programme came into being following an idea from Saleh Shaham, a geography and environment teacher in the Hof HaCarmel Regional High School, and began as a project of the Partnership for Regional Sustainability, which brought together five authorities in the region, including Zikhron Ya’akov, Binyamina-Givat Ada, Jisr al-Zarqa, Hof HaCarmel and Alona Regional Council.

The diversity of photographs allows the observer to understand, even for just a moment, how the younger generation, from different communities and cultures, views and understands its surroundings.

Hof HaCarmel Regional High School was joined by three more schools: Alsalem Middle School in Jisr al-Zarqa, Ort Binyamina High Schol and HaMoshava High School in Zikhron Ya’akov.

The Secret is in the Connections

The connections and joint work among the different schools are an important part of the project. Besides the connection between Jewish and Arab children, there is also an interesting connection between different fields of study: some of the children belong to the art study track, and some to the geography and environment study track. As part of the programme, joint meetings took place between students from these two fields at Ramat Hanadiv.

The final outcome is a photograph by each student in the programme, accompanied by a text that is his/her interpretation of the photograph, in Hebrew and in Arabic. All of the photographs are displayed at the end of the year in an exhibition, with the aim of arousing public discourse on this issue. The photographs are surprising and interesting, and present a range of interpretations of the perception of regional sustainability, while relating to the relationship between the natural environment and the urban texture.

For example, Hiaa Amesh, in the 9^th grade at Alsalem Middle School in Jisr al-Zarqa, wrote the following next to a gathering of snails on a rock: ‘One of the surprising pictures in nature is this work of art, which I found in my village; I hope that such pictures will continue to exist in nature.’

The diversity of photographs allows the observer to understand, even for just a moment, how the younger generation, from different communities and cultures, views and understands its surroundings.

The Public’s Favourite

At the opening of the exhibition, which took place in June, four photographs were chosen as the public’s favourites: