Review by Lee Halvorsen •
Jerusalem is a city like no other…traditions, faiths, races, separation, strife, love, hate, all living, loving and lasting together for 5,000 years. Gabay describes these city attributes as “layers” where places and people share the same space, sometimes the same frame and in that “captured in the camera” moment lives memories from people, places and events from the distant past as well as the sensory experience of the right now.
For fifteen years Gabay walked the streets of Jerusalem taking a million and a half photographs. For many, many months he reviewed, then re-reviewed, culled, changed, cut and selected, then down selected, to 233 images to represent the city during those years. This isn’t a book about monuments, icons, or photo opps, this is about the people of Jerusalem, how they live together, live separately, look at each other, eat, laugh, dance and sing together.
Opening a book about Jerusalem, you might expect to find famous scenes of religious sites or parades of people in religious or touristic pilgrimages. But not this book. No, in this book the reader walks through the city and experiences the changing textures, the kaleidoscope of perspectives, the sounds of the streets, the smells of the meals and cobblestones. These are real people whose context is mostly one another, not the building or bridge or culture visible in the photo.
Gabay walkabout images are intense and bring a “sense of person” to the reader’s stage. We see people singing and dancing, a child eyeing a toy, nuns ordering yogurt cones, people sleeping on benches, groups eating…some with hijabs, some with American movie posters on the café walls. The images are not about the places, not about a person, but about people together in places where together is the important part…together in Jerusalem is where the layers are because together is not a concept of “all the same.”
The editing and sequencing of the book is stunning, almost cinematic. The image-to-image flow is seamless and one of the most successful combinations of color and black and white images I’ve encountered. Like walking in the city, dark shadows to bright sunlight…sad, grief stricken eyes to youthful hopes for a toy in the window. The images literally walked me through these very human streets where the layers of religion, time, race, hope, and loss operated together, layers, but layers in undulating waves. And the page pairing!! Gabay’s skills made me smile with appreciation and warmth as I note the geometric and color similarities that merge the two on the two page spread. I think of the million and a half images and the work it must have been to actually find and “mate” the two on EACH of the spreads. Magic!
Going beyond the images, the book itself is a work of art. The design art of the front and back covers “hold” the book and the concept tightly together; that cover is matte lamination with very striking Spot UV accents. Compelling! In the book, there are no captions or names, Gabay minimally processed his images with no AI. The paper is heavy, perhaps 170+gsm and the Smyth-sewn hardcover enables the reader to fully open the book to the flat position bringing the entire street feel into view.
This is a cool book delivering a sliver of the real Jerusalem to the readers. It is a limited edition (still some available), has been blessed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and gifted to international diplomats and public figures. Definitely worth holding and reading and most certainly having it to share with others.
Lee Halvorsen is assistant editor, writer and visual artist living in Virginia.
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Jerusalemites, Jerusalem 2011-2026 by Sharon Gabay
Artist: Photographer and author, Sharon Gabay
Preface: Sharon Gabay
Hebrew Font: Based on the handwriting of the late Aner Shapira
Photographs, Text, and Design ©2026 Sharon Gabay
Publisher: Self Published
Website for purchasing book. Fewer than 100 copies remain available of the First Edition (signed & numbered). A second edition will be coming soon, and you may sign up to be notified.
Printed in at the Be’eri Printing, Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel
Language: Hebrew, Arabic, and English
Hardcover with slip case, Smyth sewn, 304 pages, 233 images, 11x 9.8 inches, ISBN 978-965-597-787-5
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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.
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