I was apparently destined for a career in photography ever since I landed my father's hand-me-down Japanese Petri camera at around age 10; by 13 I was the proud owner of my first Single Lens Reflex camera, a Canon FT, and before the year was out I'd set up my own black-and-white darkroom. By 15 I was shooting the sports-day events for my high-school newspaper, learning the full meaning of the term "spectator sports" and avoiding active participation as a bonus. Despite plans for a rewarding career in the practice of Law and undoubtedly much to my parents' chagrin, my childhood hobby evolved into my adult profession, influenced to an extent by my immigration to Israel, 20 years ago, from Melbourne, Australia. Now at 43, married to Cindy, a former Montrealer, and father to Adam (11) and Natalie (5), and many Nikons later, I can concede that over half my life has been spent in the pursuit of professional photography. My photographic career in Israel has been as diverse as life here itself, and has included employment in technical and scientific photography (Elscint, a world leader in hi-tech medical imaging systems), independent commercial and studio photography (local ad agencies, catalogues, etc), industrial photography (P.R., documentary and corporate photography for such conglomerates as Israel Chemicals, Haifa Oil Refineries, etc) and photojournalism and news photography, which I've practised for the past 15 years.

My career in photojournalism spanning local, national and foreign media, has included photography for the Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) wire services, a couple of years as Staff Photographer for northern Israel for the prestigious political weekly, Koteret Rashit ("Main Headline"), unfortunately now defunct, and the past 12 years as Staff Photographer at the Haifa bureau of Yediot Aharonot ("Latest News"), Israel's major Hebrew daily newspaper, covering spot news, sports and feature stories. The Palestinian uprising, the Gulf Crisis, and the incessant fighting in Lebanon are a few of the more notable assignments I've covered in those years, alongside more mundane assignments, as dictated by the editorial requirements of a daily newspaper. A typical month's shooting can range from glamour and fashion shows, through fatal traffic accidents and even terrorist attrocities. In my years in professional photojournalism and news photography I've witnessed the profound evolution this medium has undergone; the red glow of darkroom lights and the stench of processing chemicals have given way to cutting-edge digital photography; state-of-the-art digital cameras, optical scanners, Adobe PhotoShop photo-editing software and mobile computing have largely replaced the conventional film-based camera and darkroom, at least insofar as coverage of spot news is concerned.

In 1989 I participated in "One Nation" at the Haifa Museum of Modern Art, a group exhibition focusing on the Israeli social fabric, unique in its diversity as in its unity; this evolved into a country-wide travelling exhibit, under the auspices of "Art for the People". More recently, I was honoured to participate in "The Absent Photograph", at the Ramat Gan Museum of Modern Art, a tribute by the Israeli photojournalist community to the memory of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a man who will be equally missed by the press photographers who were fortunate enough to have known and photographed him, and by the citizens of Israel alike, regardless of political, ethnic or religious affiliations.