Life in Jerusalem

Haim Rivlin is a correspondent for the investigative program, Hamakor on Israel’s Channel 13, winner of the 2011 Sokolov Prize for Electronic Media, the Pratt Prize for Environmental Journalism, and the Primor Prize for Investigation of Social Issues. In the past, he was an investigative correspondent for Israel’s Channel 12 News, wrote for the investigative program Uvdah and wrote for the Voice of Israel. Alongside his journalistic work, Mr. Rivlin is an amateur street photographer. In 2016, he held an exhibit at the Cinema South Film Festival at the Sderot Cinematheque. His photographs were published in the Makor Rishon newspaper, as well as other platforms. The street scenes, characters, and landscapes photographed by Rivlin are mostly Jerusalemites, and can be viewed on his Instagram page, under the user name life_rivlin.

“Unlike all the stereotypes associated with the city, Jerusalem is perhaps the most diverse city in the country. Jerusalem provides the street photographer with an experience so rich that sometimes it is enough to simply is stand on a random square to capture, in a moment, situations that one would be unlikely to find anywhere else over a period of an entire year. In the exhibition, I try to bring a taste of the diversity of this beloved city, in frames filled with irony and humor, alongside sorrow, anxiety, and stress.” Haim Rivlin 

The Jewish Film Festival has selected to feature Haim Rivlin’s photographs due to their diverse interpretation of Jerusalem’s cultural mosaic. Rivlin’s work reflects the multi-ethnic and religious intersection of everyday life on the streets of Jerusalem through a unique and respectful gaze, reflecting wit, humor, and artistry. The different subjects in Rivlin’s work are religious, traditional, and secular Jews, Muslims, and Christians practicing tradition, interacting, and going about their everyday lives. Sometimes the subjects interact, sometimes they do not. But Rivlin‘s camera is not here to judge, it is here to observe, and offer color to this unique blend of cultures and voices.

Kindly supported by the Jerusalem Foundation

The Jerusalem Foundation, which has been a leading supporter of culture in the city for over 50 years, sees Rivlin’s work as a window into the diversity and cultural richness of Jerusalem, the very goals of the Foundation’s efforts in the city.