People
Photography is the easiest medium of Art to be competent in but it's the hardest medium to have a truly personal vision. It's very much like talking: everyone can talk but only a very few have something to say.
I aim to create photos that tell a story and evoke emotions. Photos that have timeless qualities. I admire classic photography with minimal retouching. I think that there is integrity in documentary style photography and strength in raw images.
In my portfolio I display my personal vision and hope that it becomes readily identifiable. My aim is to demonstrate a clear style, a remarkable fresh approach with photographs that are innovative, aesthetic and timeless. My goal is to tell a story while being imaginative and thought-provoking, to inspire people with strong and unique photographs, to be creative and artistic, to evoke emotions - to show a personal vision.
Why Photography?
In one word: passion. In three words: passion, love, excitement. The bigger picture is made of three components: me, you and humanity. I wish to leave a legacy behind me and the best way is to move touch and inspire you with capturing immortal moments that will stay with you for ever. I'd like to make a difference in people's life for generations to come.
Creating portraits gives me great opportunity to connect with people in a very special way. It enables me to understand what's really important to my clients. My set of values and beliefs enable me to establish authentic trust and create good rapport. I am very passionate about photography and it becomes quite obvious in the way I create portraits. I also get a tremendous fulfillment from the impact which my photographs crate; often evoking deep emotions. It's my great honour and privilege to be able to share this experience.
"The real work of making photographs is not exposing and focusing your image well. That stuff is the price of admission. It is assumed. That’s just learning to use a camera and it’s not mastery, just a necessary first step. High school photography students nail that in one semester.
The real work, the labour of years, is in learning to tell a story, learning to cram a heart-full of emotion or a brain full ideas into our impossibly limited little frames. It’s in learning not to focus a lens but to focus attention. Learning to expose our souls, not just a negative. Learning composition, and how to play with balance, tension, line, shape, colour, selection of moment and gesture.
Add to that the ability to create a body of work, to make a great print, to wrestle with your creative process daily, and having the humility and determination to do it over and over again. It is learning to speak with a very specific kind of language to the people that read our images, and say things that matter.
It is connecting and engaging and worrying more about inspiring than being inspired. It is in understanding emotional range more than dynamic range. It is being open and receptive and patient. It’s not about the camera or the settings; it’s about the photographer." - David duChemin
When looking at a photograph I'm always looking for the two ingredients that transcend the image from its ordinary status into something unique. Those ingredients, together with the blending of other elements, depart from the mere representation of facts by means of aesthetic and conceptual choices. Does the photograph deliver a particular emotion to the viewer as a result of the photographer's intuitive connection with the subject and does it become an experience? Does a portfolio include images that offer visual diversity executed with an intimacy to maintain the viewers' attention to the work and the story? It's the photographer's responsibility to strive and incorporate these qualities into their work to make it successful in communicating an idea.
(c) Ilan Wittenberg 
Jerusalem