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GÉRARD ALLON: IMMIGRANT, PIONEER, VISIONARY, MYSTIC

Dr. Nissan N. Perez

Gérard Allon is without doubt one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Israeli photography.

Already an accomplished photographer when he arrived from France in the 1970s, he has increasingly

made his presence felt. He was and still is one of the central figures in the development of camera art, and

through a most natural and organic process he has led it to current parity with the highest international

standards. He has applied photography in such areas as video, cinema, and holography, where his

constant searching and experimentation have often spearheaded developments. To understand Allon’s

role, it is necessary to look first at the general state of photography in Israeli society.

Photography in Israeli Society

Life in Israel is marked by a great number of factors, some historic, others surfacing as a result of the

complex national, social, economic, and geopolitical situation. From the indelible memory of the

Holocaust to the day-to-day concerns of political, social, and security issues (personal and national), the

reality of contemporary Israel creates a haunting and challenging environment in which living

(surviving?) has become an ever-present challenge. To create art can at times seem to be a gratuitous and

futile act.

How then do artists (also as citizens) come to terms with this distressing reality that encompasses

undiscerning violence, insecurity, social discrimination, political instability, and other illnesses common

to most contemporary societies? Their cumulative work proposes a wide choice of alternatives, from first-

hand active involvement in the life of their country, to a total and conscious escapism. The well-defined

and refined personal approaches as well as the diversity of the distinctive strategies and points of view,

reveal a partial, yet up-to-date image of contemporary Israeli photography and video art, and

consequently of life in Israel. The output of Israeli artists is charged with a wide range of implications as

to the complexity of life in the country. Israeli art reflects deep preoccupations and is laden with energies,

beliefs, tensions, hopes and prayers, sorrows and joys, trust and suspicion, through which the ghosts from

the past and the present can only be felt partially.

What characterizes contemporary Israeli art, and especially photography and video, is that today’s artists

try to increase public awareness of each and every aspect of life in Israel. By inciting the viewer to

reconsider opinions and attitudes, they try to further action towards creating a better and more just

society. Given the actual situation, this sounds utopian, but a fragment of optimism is absolutely

necessary, and artists are fulfilling their duty by pointing out wrongs and injustices, while also still

leaving open the possibility of a better future. For most of these artists their works bear witness to their

involvement in the life of the country and to their commitment to improve both the reality and the image

of their homeland. In an environment where past and present, the personal and the political are

inseparable, Israeli artists are endowed with the unique gift of transforming the art of living into living art.

Their contribution is not only to photography or the arts, but to the building and functioning of Israeli

culture in general.

Because of both physical and cultural distance, contemporary Israeli photography and video remain to

some extent peripheral on the international scene. Even when they are featured in high profile venues

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such as the Venice Biennial, they are still in a state of constant dialogue, frequently in tension, and at

times in conflict with universal trends. In their attempt to become part of the mainstream and in step with

contemporary international trends, they very often create a most fascinating synthesis of cosmopolitan

values and of local cultural, social, and political contexts.

In Israeli society, which is undergoing deep change and frequent crises, the arts express the nation’s

identity crises: the ethnic/religious, the ideological, the national. In addition, Israelis are torn between

myths and remembrance, with each of these spheres inhabited by its own ghosts. As Israeli society

matures, religious and national myths are being reconsidered in a modern perspective, leading to the

breaking of many traditional taboos. This in itself implies an often painful discontinuity with past

identities. Moreover, both nationally and individually, Israel is burdened by the weight of memory: the

Diaspora, the Holocaust. The myth of the survivor, the many wars endured, and the staggering number of

casualties Israel has mourned, are still not distant enough for objective consideration. In view of these

heavy historic burdens, many artists feel obliged to take a kind of inventory of the irreparable in their

work, but the traces of these social, political, cultural, and economic factors are not always easily

discernible. While some artists tackle these subjects directly, others embed them in their work through

tangential implication, and yet others, totally ignoring them, seek refuge in the personal and the

imaginative.

The issues of memory and identity at various levels are ever present in Israeli photography and video,

even more so than elsewhere in the world, given the country's relatively short history and its brief

duration of cultural formation. Myths and historic and religious facts and legends reside alongside the

political reality. The new generation challenges and reassesses these traditional notions, slaughtering

many “sacred cows” in the process. Powerful aesthetic statements are made in the quest for artistic self-

determination. In many instances the viewer's task is to discover not only the nature of the subject

depicted, but its significance too. From this point on, everyone can build his own story drawing on the

connotations drawn from the final image. Israeli art, then, should be examined in relation to specific and

current geopolitical, social, and cultural conditions as well as through the perspective of borders and the

battle for territory, of war and terrorism, conquest and occupation. These factors are inherent in the arts

in Israel.

After over a hundred years of tumultuous existence in the Near East, and sixty years of independence as a

state, the multifaceted Israeli society is still in conflict with itself, its identity, and its self-image, and this

condition necessarily deeply marks the local artistic creation. While navigating between the acute

memory of the Holocaust and the intricate contemporary issues of security, including the unbearable

living conditions of the population in the territories and the separation wall that is being built, artists seem

to draw an inventory of the irreparable. For contemporary Israeli artists, issues of human rights, racism,

and humanism are extremely concrete, even more so than for artists in Western countries for whom these

issues tend to be more theoretical, more in the realm of "romanticism." In the harsh reality of today's

Israel--with the fear of the future, the faltering peace process, the entire population in constant friction

with the Palestinian nation, the threat of terrorism that is an integral part of daily life--there is little room

for romanticism. The periodic wars, obligatory military service for much of the population, and the

constant threat to the existence of the nation, leave little latitude for theory and philosophy. These burning

issues that preoccupy every citizen are even more vital to the artist.

Despite the inevitable traces of this situation in the artists' work, in many instances a first reading of their

work does not reveal these concerns. Each of these artists expresses his or her vision in a different--overt

or subdued--form. While some may tackle these issues in a straightforward fashion, many others

consciously avoid them and find refuge in their imagination and inner world.

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The multitude of tendencies and the unsettled pluralism are a symptom of Israel’s undefined local culture.

From its very beginning, Israel has been essentially an immigrant society where a plethora of cultural and

artistic streams have converged from all over the world. This environment did not favor the formation of a

well-defined artistic tradition. Although today's Israel has ceased to be a country of immigration in the

traditional sense, it is still a melting pot. Nevertheless, it now has also developed a strong and relatively

well-established local culture and artistic tradition that is robust enough to absorb and overpower sporadic

influences brought by immigration, with only some mild side effects. Today, Israel still devotes major

time, thought, and energy to exploring the question of national identity through symposia and

philosophical discussions. There is no clear-cut answer as to what constitutes Israeli national identity; and

although over half a century has passed, one still defines it through a process of elimination, that is, by

enumerating what Israeli identity is not.

Each language is a unique means of experiencing and expressing consciousness and each is culture-

specific. It often happens that in order to convey a specific idea or message, a combination of different

languages seems to be the most effective way. As a result of the geopolitical situation, and of being the

melting pot of a large variety of cultures, Israel has invented a certain number of colloquial Hebrew

expressions such as “korach hametziut” (necessity of reality) or “ein brera” (no alternative), and many

slogans such as am “bematsor” (a nation under siege) or “am besakanat hakhada” (a nation in danger of

extermination), which have become synonyms for Israelism and express the state of emergency and

urgency that prevails in the country. Today’s Hebrew also clearly mirrors the younger generation’s search

for identity, a new identity that, having broken with the ethos of the heroic past of the pioneers, is torn

between two worlds. On one hand is the presence in the Near East, to which the locally born generation

feels it belongs, and on the other hand is the everlasting desire to belong to the West. For example, one of

the most popular expressions used by the younger generation—yalla bye (OK, good-bye)—is a

combination of Arabic and English in total disregard of Hebrew. This slang is symptomatic of the mood

and attitude of the new generation. As a result, contemporary Israeli artists are still engaged in dealing

with myths and coping with memory-breaking norms and consensus, paving the road to the future which

is our today, our here and now. The refrain from the recent rock hit “We Are a Screwed Generation” is

just another indication of the state of mind of the younger generation of local artists.

In contrast to Western countries, Israeli artists actively engage in political debate as an antidote to

indifference and resignation. Their creations sometimes include only subtle subversive messages, yet

often the artists employ a rhetoric of shock. While relentlessly scrutinizing life in the country, Israeli art,

including photography and video, holds up a cruel mirror to the country and the society. The questioning

of national values comes as a reminder and a reproach to the average citizen's stereotyped views. This

accounts for one of the distinguishing traits of artistic creation in Israel: at a moment when in many

Western countries mainstream artistic creation is strongly influenced by political correctness, Israeli

artists, critics, and most of the artistic establishment consider it their prime duty to be militant, or

downright “politically incorrect.” In a country where state emergency regulations are regularly extended

without question and military censorship still applies, this almost seems like an act of heroism.

The lens-based arts in Israel have developed independently of the mainstream arts, and they have been

viewed in Israel, as elsewhere, to some extent as the enfants terribles of the arts. However, photography

and video have almost reached the end of their crusade for recognition. Warmly embraced by all, artists

and critics alike, they have a new position as influential modes of expression, whose ramifications are felt

in all creative fields. Not only have photography and video in Israel produced a considerable number of

artists using the media to the fullest, a new generation of educated and sophisticated consumers read and

understand them in the most contemporary manner.

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More than all other art forms, photography and video essentially aim to create mental images that affect

the viewer. The multifaceted works of contemporary Israeli artists touch on a large variety of issues, but

their most dominant and important faculty is the lucid and incisive look they direct toward our land and

life. In examining the changing and scarred landscape and society, they confront us with a most caustic

critique of our values and social environment. They offer a constant reevaluation of our collective

knowledge and of the understanding of our nation and our culture in the face of common misconceptions

and preconceived ideas. They are a most courageous attempt to foster the heightened consciousness that

can enable us to attain a viable future.

Gérard Allon: The Artist

The transformation of the camera arts in Israel began in the summer of 1975 with a juried exhibition in

Tel Aviv entitled Through the Lens of Immigrant Photographers. Held under the auspices of the Ministry

of Education and Culture, the exhibition included six artists selected by a jury: one of them, the then-

unknown Gérard Allon. To include him was an act of almost prophetic clairvoyance, since both as an

artist and a photographer, Allon was destined to play a most important role in the renewal of the art in

Israel, above all in the field of commercial and fashion photography. Together with a handful of other

young photographers active at the time (among them the immigrants Yosaif Cohain and Neil Folberg, and

Israelis educated abroad, such as Hanan Laskin, Avi Ganor, and Micha Kirshner), Allon was instrumental

in bringing much-needed foreign influences into the insular bubble of local photography. He belongs to

the younger generation of camera artists who have established new standards and have brought Israeli

photography to the highest international standards.

Gérard Allon--originally Alloun--was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1949. His great-grandfather, on a

trip from Jerusalem, had married a rabbi’s daughter in Morocco and settled down there. Allon’s father, a

self-taught engineer specializing in concrete, had studied in the Alliance school and consequently was

extremely open to French culture. His mother (née Zemour) was of Algerian origin and so held French

citizenship, which the decree of Crémieux had awarded to Algerian Jews in 1870. In 1956, the family

moved from Morocco to Algiers, where they joined the mother's family. However, as a result of the

instability that led to Algeria's decolonization and independence, the family immigrated to France and

settled in Paris where Allon attended the Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say in the sixteenth arrondissement. He

later studied linguistics and French literature at the University of Lille.

At seventeen Allon got hold of the family's Exacta camera and also a 16mm movie camera. From then on

his career was determined. He immediately began experimenting with the visual possibilities of these new

tools, and just a few years later he found employment as assistant director for the cinema and for French

television.

The student revolution of May 1968 in Paris and its aftermath left a strong and lasting mark on the

individuals of Allon’s generation. For Allon, who had captured the events with his camera, it shaped his

social and political awareness (Figure 1).

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Figure 1: Paris insurrection, 1968.

By the time he moved to Israel in 1974 Allon, as a French citizen, already had well defined political

views relating to France; but he left those behind in France. He was no Zionist or political activist, and he

approached Israel without a religious or political agenda. Doing so may have made his encounter with

Israel, the local culture and the artistic scene, even more of a turning point in his life and his

photographic/creative career. Once in Israel, Allon went from being an unknown entity in a big country,

to an innovator and trend setter in his new home.

Gérard Allon's interest in the camera image has never been stand-alone or monolithic. For him,

photography has always been part of a comprehensive visual ensemble, which included all forms of visual

expression, as well as the cinema and the stage arts of theater and dance. Allon’s variety of interests is

most certainly the result of his moving from one country to another. Despite the inherent difficulties,

migrating to a new cultural and visual environment broadens one's horizons and deepens a person’s

understanding of life, thus enriching the creative arsenal.

Besides the revolution of ’68, the general cultural atmosphere of France of the 1960s and 1970s

influenced Allon. The liveliest cultural and artistic fields at the time were literature (prose and poetry),

philosophy, cinema and theater, and traces of all can clearly be discerned in Allon's artistic creations

throughout his career. When asked who most influenced his work and thought, Allon is usually unable to

come up immediately with references, but he then slowly begins to enumerate names and styles in a

variety of domains--Kafka, Borges, Sartre, Camus, Artaud, Beckett, Ionesco—always adding that these

influences were time-limited or even specific to a certain moment in his life. These names help explain

the surrealistic qualities of many of his creations in various fields of activity. Naturally, at some point, the

young Gérard did try his hand at writing poetry and short stories, but his heart has always remained in the

realm of the visual. In the strictly spiritual domain, Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy, thought, and ethics

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and his humanistic approach to Biblical texts was critical. Levinas’ writings, along with Gershom

Sholem’s work on the Cabala, influenced Allon to create several thematic series directly connected to

Judaism, such as Genesis and Passover Haggadah.

In painting, Allon cites Goya, Braque, the German Expressionists and Kiefer, while in cinema he refers to

Tarkowsky and Bergman, the years of Jean Rouch's cinéma vérité, and subsequently Jean-Luc Goddard.

They left a deep imprint on his thought, work, and creation. Several decades later direct traces of the

typical visual vernacular of cinéma vérité, associated with the more contemporary technologies of video

art, are clearly visible in his 2004 documentary Naomi's Corset and in his latest film Fragments.

In the field of photography Allon mentions a long list of artists, many of them predictable, such as

Muybridge, Man Ray, Dorothea Lange, Bill Brandt, Cartier Bresson, and Robert Frank. Again, each of

these connects to a specific moment in his life and career. However, these influential photographers were

not models that he copied directly. They were, rather, sounding boards with whom he still conducts a

visual, artistic and creative dialogue. Through staged photography, which he practiced extensively

throughout his practice, Allon came to appreciate and admire Jeff Wall’s work much later in his career.

In fact, from the very beginning most of Allon’s work is characterized by the use of photographic “mise

en scène,” which is in line with most contemporary modes of creation in the field. His creations in all

fields, from commercial imagery to personal mystical projects, rely on the intentional creation of parts of

the scene, which are then destroyed once the set-up has been recorded photographically. What remains is

naturally a “visual memory” fixed in the final image.

Although Allon initially felt very much at ease in France and integrated into French society, his

immigration to Israel at age twenty-four was to a large extent the result of the disillusionment he felt with

what he calls “the aborted ‘revolution’ of ’68.” It awakened in him difficult questions of identity. He

initially came to Israel to seek distance and gain perspective on himself and his life in France. However it

quickly became evident to him that his place was in Israel, and his stay turned primarily into a quest for

roots and identity. It was the internal feeling of extraneousness and alienation that he hoped Israel might

be able to resolve. In fact, he came in order to ask questions, to learn and to absorb, rather than to change

and influence.

The moment of Allon's arrival in Israel was a critical one for the nation. Israel was marked by extremes:

the rather brutal awakening from the euphoria of the Six Day War of 1967 and the trauma and tragedy of

the Yom Kippur War of 1973, all mixed with fear and a cautious optimism surrounding Israel's peace

agreement with Egypt. In the midst of such vital concerns, art was certainly secondary, and photography

was stagnating between the old schools and a mere mannerist copying of sporadic Western influences.

Gérard Allon asserts that he came to learn and to enrich his life, not to teach. However, in his new

environment he soon found himself teaching, applying, and further developing all the skills and

knowledge he had wanted to leave behind in France. Totally unconsciously, and in a most natural

process, instead of finding and receiving answers, he became an innovator and an influential figure trying

to fill the gap between the local condition of photography and what he had learned and experienced

abroad. He found out that cinema and still photography in Israel were lagging behind, both on the creative

and technological level. From his perspective, the characters and the plots in Israeli cinema at that time

were shallow and naïve, lacking in sophistication—and that was also true of photography. In this

situation, the outsider—the new immigrant—faced the dilemma of whether to act or not: would his

involvement constitute negative interference? In the end, he opted for active participation in the process

of renovating and rebuilding the fields of activity in which he was most experienced and prolific. In

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retrospect, and from the historical perspective, it is clear that he made a marked difference, both as an

artist and creator, as well as a teacher.

The younger generation of photographers—some of them, like Gérard Allon, new immigrants or Israelis

educated abroad—worked from the late 1970s on to create a new order of cosmopolitan photography

based on contemporary Western canons. In a revolutionary fashion, Allon and his Israeli colleagues

purposefully ignored or obscured all that was before them, labeling it as old, obsolete, anachronistic, and

worthless. They refused to establish any kind of dialogue with Israeli forerunners of the medium. For

Allon, his lack of familiarity with or knowledge of the antecedents of Israeli photography became a major

advantage, as his point of reference was the current situation, which motivated him to act. However, this

did not deter him from a noticeably conscious effort to reach deep into local cultural conditions, including

problematic issues around the Bible and Jewish questions, the territories, and the mystic or messianic

political currents in the country.

Although there had always been rather intensive camera activity in the region, especially in Israel, in the

late 1970s and early 1980s there was practically no critical writing of any kind in the field. Even museum

exhibition catalogues were mainly descriptive, to some extent apologetic, and did not attempt to create a

critical discourse of any kind. Photography was still battling for recognition as an art form and seeking

legitimacy as a creative/artistic tool in its own right. Today‘s contemporary Israeli film, video and

photography still owe much to the intensive activity and creative burst that took place in the 1970s.

Gérard Allon’s career has been characterized by continuity and a deep coherence. One of the first works

he created shortly after his arrival in Israel was a film on the first Jewish settlement on the Golan Heights,

and this documentary has provided basic material that he constantly reuses in his current work. In

Fragments (1990-2006), for instance, he combines parts of this early footage with recent takes in a new

film expressing continuity, but also pointing to the radicalization of the religious discourse that has been

sliding towards political messianism (Figure 2).

Figure 2: From the film Shevarim (Fragments) 1990-2006: The Second Lebanon War; shown: Gérard Allon.

The remarkable variety and originality of Allon's photographic activity quickly earned him a place in the

front row of the camera practitioners working in the commercial arena. Advertising agencies and

publications sought him out because his images brought new ideas and a fresh approach to fashion and

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magazine illustrations. Allon not only introduced new standards in this field, he also deployed his

imported aesthetics. His photographs spoke in a new visual vernacular that came from a different culture.

Thus, he incorporated the use of sensuality, which was not only innovative but also shattered certain

taboos still existing in a rather puritan Israel. The subtle eroticism that his work exuded, with its

Western/French aura of elegance, was taken up by others and set a new pattern in the field.

Beginning in 1978, the newly established monthly magazine Monitin, a modern and revolutionary

publication with a flashy, slick style and an unprecedented high-standard of printing, also redefined

editorial photography. The editors offered a new showcase, an experimental stage and new codes for the

use of photographs, granting total freedom to the artists. It was natural that Allon would find his place

there as one of the leading contributors (Figure 3), and in fact, he became the person behind many covers

and feature articles.

Figures 3, 4 &5: Monitin Magazine and disc cover.

Allon’s new ideas and approaches had a significant impact on commercial photography—notably on

magazine covers and posters (Figure 4). He had a similarly innovative impact on the art of disc covers,

especially during the 1980s when music also was flourishing (Figure 5).

An additional and significant area in which Allon excels is stage photography. His love and deep

understanding of the medium, based on his wide experience in France—especially shooting the Living

Theater in Lille in the late 1960s--made him one of the leading figures of the field in Israel. He eventually

was appointed house photographer for the Israel National Theater Habima where for the last several

decades he has created exceptional visual documentation of their groundbreaking plays. In addition, he

has worked for the Cameri Theater, the Yiddish Theater, and the Jerusalem Khan Theater. Besides regular

stage photography, he has also contributed visuals that were an integral part of the stage design as well as

of the play itself. A most remarkable such contribution was the video he produced for Allen Ginsberg's

Kaddish to Naomi. When the play was reviewed by the New York Times on September 20, 2003, his

work was more highly praised, than the play itself. As Margo Jefferson wrote: "Video images are so

popular that they can become a visual tic. There is nothing generic, though, about the work of Gérard

Allon, the production's multimedia director; his images work as a musical score does. Rhythms change;

so does intensity” (Figures 6, 7)

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Figures 6 & 7: From the video art film Kadish le-No'omi Ginsberg (Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg), 2000.

Allon's personal search for new visual possibilities and languages has been a crucial aspect of his overall

creative activity, and he has never ceased to develop new areas of interest. As part of adapting to his new

country--and in an attempt to absorb the cultural icons of Israel—Allon created a series of small black and

white images in which he portrayed everyday objects that are specific to Israel. By writing their

descriptive name (in Hebrew and often with mistakes) he created a dialogue and a new basis for

familiarity with the strange environment. In the photograph “Matches” he adds in parentheses “(Israeli),”

so as to differentiate them from others and accentuate their local value (Figure 8).

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Figure 8: Gafrurim (Yisre’elim) (Matches (Israeli)). From the series Postcards from Israel, 1982.

These photographs are also closely connected to the issue of identity and his search for his own

individuality in society. The fact that Israel is a melting pot of cultures and languages, with Jews from so

many different backgrounds, leads Allon to realize that the only binding element is the common

religious/historic past shared by all Jews and that images and metaphors from the Bible could serve to tie

together and define the nation in formation. However, Allon could not act on this realization in his

commercial work. From the early formative years of the State, and especially during the 1960s and 1970s

most commissioning agencies, artists, and photographers avoided art with religious overtones at all costs.

In fact, they all focused on the Sabra (the native Israeli) as the model of the new Jew being created in the

melting pot. Yet, this new Israeli was far from being a synthesis of all the citizens, an ideal figure to be

looked up to, because the model was always European, an Ashkenazi, an ideal figure appealing only to

less than one half of the population. In fact, instead of binding together, it deepened the social differences

between the different ethnic groups. During the early 1980s ethnocentricity became a new standard under

which groups and parties assembled and fought.

Despite that, Allon decided to create works deeply rooted in Jewish writing and tradition. His Bereshit

(Genesis) sequence illustrated passages from Genesis, while the Passover Haggadah that he created and

also published was a new version of the traditional text, coupled with new illustrations. The semi-abstract

images eventually became photographic landmarks in Israel (Figure 9). Although he constructed the

staged setups for the series in the purest Jewish tradition, Allon avoided literal illustrations, instead using

a contemporary visual vernacular and modern symbols. The visual elements he employed were essentially

basic geometric forms, visual analogies of the four elements and colors, yet all endowed with Cabalistic

significance. As Allon clearly states, his research on the visual representation of the Bible is a personal

exegesis, through which he “translated” and interpreted the texts. The images remain somewhat hermetic

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to the layman, as one needs to have at least a basic knowledge of the philosophical complexity of the

Cabalistic concepts, such as the tree of life and the Sefirot.

Figure 9: Yom shelishi (Third Day), from the series Genesis, 1984.

In the introduction to the Passover Haggadah published in 1982 Allon wrote: “The Passover Haggada has

existed for thousands of years and usually appears accompanied by drawings and pictures. These aid in

creating an actualization of the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt in each generation; a physical, moreover a

mental and spiritual liberation which we must… undergo anew every year.

During the work, there appeared a possibility of a photographic exegesis and its language was based on

primary forms: circle, square, triangle..., and basic colours. Usage of their meaning stems from the

knowledge of the Kabbalah. In every shape, in every colour there is essence.”

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Figure 10: Hoshekh (Darkness), The Ten Plagues, from the Passover Hagadah shel Pesah (Passover [Hagadah]), 1982.

In the fall of the same year, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, organized a major exhibition titled Here and

Now: Israeli Art, which included painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and video. This was an

extensive survey of the condition of the arts in the country, and Gérard Allon was one of the fourteen

photographers chosen as representative of the most innovative and up-to-date approaches in the medium.

Selected for the exhibition was the series of ten photographs from the Passover Haggadah illustrating the

ten plagues of Egypt (Figure 10). The catalogue of the exhibition referred to Allon’s work in these terms:

“Gérard Allon is the only photographer in the exhibition who attempts to avoid the

beaten path. Almost totally free of any foreign influences, he aims to produce images

derived directly from Jewish heritage. His photographs, a series of illustrations for a

recently published Passover Haggada, combine a two-millennia-old subject with a

very modern visual idiom: color photography. This unusual mixture, together with

the use of Kabalistic signs and symbols, results in a unique series of abstract images.

Even more surprising is the use of violent colors reminiscent of Punk aesthetic, and

its associations with such a subject. Allon's modern photographic mysticism and his

effort to combine old and new might be seen as a solitary attempt in the search for a

local character in Israeli photography.”

In spite of the unusual character of his work and art, and its dissimilarity with current photographic

practices in the country, Allon has been embraced by the museum and art worlds as being one of the

representatives of new Israeli photography.

An avid experimenter and seeker after new tools to enlarge his creative arsenal, Allon embraced the new

science of holography in the early 1980s. In applying it in his art he pioneered an almost futurist mode of

imagery that verges on science fiction. The groundbreaking images created in his state-of-the art studio

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laboratory touch upon a variety of subjects--from Biblical symbolism to fashion and portraiture (Figure

11). However successful, his efforts did not meet with the response he expected. It seems that his

experiments and the images he created were somewhat premature, with their intellectual and

philosophical basis not understood.

Figure 11: Hologram from an installation for Paradoks ha-Halom ha-Homri (The Paradox of the Materialistic Dream), Tel Aviv

Museum of Art, 1993.

In Allon’s view, holography and synthetic imagery questioned the traditional concept of photography and

linear perspective as applied through the lens and the camera obscura. The new technologies, especially

holography with its simultaneous multiple points of view of the subject, is an antithesis of the time-

frozen, “cyclopic” vision of photography. As conceived and expressed by Allon, holography is in a sense

a two-dimensional rendition of a four-dimensional world and reality, as it also includes the element of

time. Not only is the perspective not dependent on the camera’s position, it varies according to the

viewer’s placement: two viewers looking at the same picture will each perceive a different image, just as

if looking through a window.

Having traveled to the United States and Canada for his exhibitions in 1983 and 1985, Allon realized that

the technology of holography had evolved to the point of allowing a wider range of creative possibilities.

In addition, he also met potential investors wanting to create a research and development company in the

field, and they offered him a partnership and the direction of a laboratory in Montreal, Canada, the center

of new imaging technologies. In view of the limited possibilities Israel could offer for holography and his

need for wider horizons, he decided to move to Canada in 1986. There, besides his regular photographic

work, he experimented extensively with the magic beams. He registered a U.S. patent on a “Photograph

Booth with Automatic Holographic Camera” on April 5, 1988. This unique device was capable of

creating a hologram of a human subject positioned inside it and facing a holographic sheet film on which

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the hologram of the subject was to be recorded. Although the booth had all the necessary safety devices to

prevent the laser beam from damaging the sitter's eyes, its high cost probably prevented its commercial

realization.

Allon’s stay in Canada, although longer than intended, was also a period of reflection on the very essence

of images, and it naturally influenced his future work. Upon his return to Israel in 1991, he continued

experimenting with the notion of multiple points of view, turning his interest towards video installations

as another possibility of imaging and representation. The residual effect of these can be strongly felt in his

new video creations, where he uses split screens that offer viewers several vantage points simultaneously,

thus allowing different interpretations of the works.

Among Allon’s more recent achievements are two films that have brought him a well-deserved

international recognition. The documentary Naomi's Corset (2004) is based on the ordeal his daughter

Naomi went through in a series of difficult surgical operations to correct a serious case of scoliosis. This

deeply moving document unavoidably carries traces of elements from the cinéma vérité so familiar to

him. However, it deals with a new vernacular, that of video art, which, through staged and manipulated

scenes, questions the sober and realistic imagery that is the very essence of cinéma vérité. Allon’s film

was awarded the jury’s special mention at the FIPA (International Festival of Audiovisual Programs) in

2005 (Figure 12).

Figure 12: From the film Ha-Hagorah shel No’omi (Naomi’s Corset), 2004.

His second film, Fragments, is neither a documentary nor a feature. It asks questions and seeks answers

without necessarily finding any, which has always been characteristic of Allon's creative activity and

prolific mind. His questioning has long transcended the personal level and has moved to the wider

national, political, and social realms. His queries vis-à-vis being Israeli, Zionist, and Jewish (not in a

religious but rather a mystical context) are not meant to create controversy; that already exists naturally in

the country. He aims instead to raise issues of identity and belonging to the land and country and of the

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ethical values of Israel in the contemporary geopolitical environment. As is clear from the film itself,

Allon asks questions and attempts to answer them in a dialogue with himself. Yet the answers are not to

be found. This impossible situation makes his daughter, also acting in the film, ask: "Father, why don't

you answer me." As with most of his art work, this film, although contemporary in its conception and the

use of new technologies, still shows influences from Allon’s European and especially French background.

The construction of the movie, with the different scenes and episodes in it, some recurrent, others

virtually unrelated or contradictory, are reminiscent of the literary style called nouveau roman advocated

in the 1960s by novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet.

It is virtually impossible to sum up such a long and prolific career in the arts in one short essay. Looking

back, Allon can be rightfully satisfied with what has happened to him personally, as well as with his

involvement in the artistic life of Israel. The country has enriched him as a person and as an artist, and at

the same time it has received much from him. However, he himself never asserts the importance of his

achievements or the wide range of his influence. Throughout his career, Gérard Allon has evinced a

personal and artistic modesty. Instead of imposing himself upon his creations, he reveals and expresses

himself only through the richness, variety, and originality of his creative strategies. Israel has been

blessed with such an outstanding addition to its artistic family.