The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection (1)

Any idea when this picture was taken?

A woman holding grapes; an ordinary photo. Is this art?

A photo in a museum; there must be more to this woman with her grapes. A famous actrice, a historical figure or a self-portrait by the artist? Could you think of a story about why she is special?

Who she is and what she did, influences the way you look at her. Imagine how you would perceive the image if she turns out to be a hero. And now imagine the opposite, if she was a criminal.

The artist of this photo created this image in 2008 as an addition to a previously made photo collection: The Sonnenfeld Collection by Jewish couple Herbert and Leni Sonnenfeld. Herbert and Leni documented the Jewish community in theur hometown Berlin and in the rest of Germany. Later, after being fled fort he Second World War, they continued their project in New York and Israel. Yael Bartana created this image as part of a new series: The Missing negatives of the Sonnenfeld collection.

Israel was founded after the war as a new Jewish state. Herbert and Leni photographed the young and hopeful colonists. The founding is disputed because the Arabic population was driven out. This causes great conflict to this day.

The artist Yael Bartana was born in Israel. Her origin and the Israel-Palestine conflict feature in all of her work. The same goes for this photo.

The original pictures in the Sonnenfeld Collection show a romantic image of the newly founded Israel. Nothing is shown of the original inhabitants that were being pushed out. Yael is trying to change that by adding ‘missing’ photo to the collection.

At first glance, this photo looks the same as all the pictures in the original Sonnenfeld collection. But there is one important difference. Instead of the Jewish people in the original collection, Bartana used Arabic Palestine or Israeli of Arabic descent as models. With that, she plays with your perception of images.

Below are two pictures; one is by Bartana, the other is from the Sonnenfelds. Can you spot which is which?

With this pictures, Bartana doesn’t want to condemn the occupation of Israel. She hopes there will be an end tot he conflict. The models are therefore shown looking hopeful. Not hoping for a new country, but whishing a loving relationship between the Palestine and the Israeli.