Borche

“Before coming in New Zealand I worked as a special counterterrorism operator. I am from Macedonia, a small country that many people do not know exists even though it was considered a great world power before Christ, led by Alexander the Great. I spent 28 tough years of my life and I do not regret it, as Frank Roosevelt said “a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”. I served my country for 5 years being part of the most elite “Special Task Unit”. Its main tasks are counterterrorism, resolving hostage situations and raid into facilities. I was also a part of the diving team, searching the underwater terrain, downers and objects of crime. In 2015 we had a terrorist attack that killed 8 of my colleagues and wounded 36. That was a wake-up call for me to start a family. I got married in 2015 and by 2016 my son was born. As the time was passing my private life started to get influenced by my work and that was the last thing I wanted. In 2017 my wife and I decided to leave the country to start a new life which will benefit us, and most of all our son – we purposely chose New Zealand. We have been living here for two years now, although we feel like whole lifetime. Here I have many opportunities and for me the mission is not over, because only the brave are followed by fortune…” Check out the Bare Truth series to see more.

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Nude Mandala

Silver Award for Nude Mandala in the Creative category of the 2020 Rise Photography Awards

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Paul Gilbert – Bare Truth

July 28, 2019

August 8, 2019

August 19, 2019

“I am due to be 65 years old (New Zealand’s retirement age) in early December 2019. I have a very aggressive cancer and am in palliative care after two chemotherapy rounds and a failed drug trial. I’m hoping to stay well enough to make that date or better. I have been a “dead man walking” since a burst colon tumour nearly took me out with septicemia, and that certainty transformed and tested my philosophical outlook. I have been very surprised that my previous lip service to my beliefs have now actually been tested and find me in a very rich part of my life. My collateral has always been in relationships, not cash currency and I’ve found this never devalues. Indeed I’m overwhelmed by the support and love returning my way from family, friends and acquaintances, much of it from the many wonderful people working in this often devastating area of care. I have never been more relaxed in my attitude to life and am sensitive to the fact that my calm demeanour attracts simple smiles, gifts and shared enjoyment. Likewise, my forthright opinions and dark humour are often very challenging, but go figure? Why blues music?
Tunnelling down to try to fathom this wonderous shift has not revealed any deliberate or constructed effort. I will take this gift and, while my quality of life is medically managed, try to maintain my voluntary activities with Hospice and elsewhere the need is felt.
Born in a relatively impoverished inner-city suburb with a fabulous mixed ethnicity, I enjoyed primary and intermediate school with good if challenged teachers and a great local library. During my parents’ discord and break up, books were my refuge. It was a household of drink and violence from my father, deep love and sacrifice from my mother.
My life has been strongly influenced by necessity and responsibility. Healthwise I have been free, by and large, of injury or disease and that has allowed me to spot the gap and with some tantalising risk, embark on photographic and maritime adventures when responsibilities lessened. Of course we navigate much of our life with youth’s immortal horizon. I used to say I liked the sound of deadlines whistling by, but no more.
My siblings and I lost our mother to high blood pressure, stress, and little available support, when I was 17 years old. With an absent father, and having just started work, I supported my younger brother and sister through their secondary school years. We ate well on very little because of a socialist food co-operative. My philosophy was forming along with a period of intense and at that time obscure soft-style martial arts training with a weighting toward meditation and energy integration. I have always been grateful that mum passed on her interest in photography, which, at age 7, along with a boat trip, cemented two combined lifelong passions. I have lived aboard yachts, photographed them, and enjoyed that wonderful lifestyle that our sparkling waters provide.
I progressed to a series of technically skilled high-end jobs including teaching. Although low paid these jobs allowed for a parallel passionate development in personal documentary and fine arts efforts. Maintaining an active exhibiting profile fell to one side due to financial constraints. The work however, which is always primary, has continued unabated, if unrecognised, in the fine arts arena. I’m currently looking to house my marine archive.
I became a solo parent to my two year old son after completing a documentary project. He returned to his mother at age 12 and then moved to Australia when he was 17. I have a daughter from a subsequent relationship, access to whom was very sadly limited. I have been recently blessed by Eamonn and Laura gifting us a grandson. Life is a circle.
I am currently very busy trying to organise things for my passing, to save anguish for my loved ones in the rather unknown time ahead. The time feels short, the list long. I’m planning a “Way out Party” to gather with and enjoy my friends and family as soon as is practical, to help them ease into their grief process in a face+to-face farewell, with laughter, ribald stories and much love. Boats will play a part in my crossing the bar.
My very unconventional urn will reside under Mum’s memorial tree, planted by Bruce, Linda and myself when I turned 50 years old. The tree overlooks my wondrous Hauraki Gulf and its islands from above the bay where I lived aboard my yacht for eight years. Traumatised by Mum’s early death it was devastating many years later to return to the cemetery and find they had lost the ashes. The now 3m high tree and its simple bench and plaque, is a place to stand, rest and remember. I am very happy with these arrangements.
Enough of that rough sea!
Being a photographer, I rarely am caught north of the lens hence my appearance here as a record. What have I learned about Photography? Only two things matter:
1. It’s where you stand
2. It’s when you trip the shutter Practice refining this for as long as possible.
Add a decent amount of saltwater. Mix well. Enjoy the Journey.”

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

2019 North Shore Salon

Delighted to win a plethora of awards including seven medals at this year’s North Shore Salon! “Don’t enter again please” said one of the volunteers who helped out on the opening night…

“I am very excited to win these prestigious awards” says Ilan. “I am a portrait photographer, so winning both Gold and Silver in the People category is especially meaningful to me. I first entered this wonderful competition in 2010”, says Wittenberg “and it’s a big honour even to get an Acceptance”.

Established in 1995 by the North Shore Photographic Society [NSPS], the North Shore National Salon of Photography aims to promote the art of photography in New Zealand through a respectful and inspiring annual event. Founded in 1954, the NSPS has 150 members ranging from amateurs to professionals and from beginners to experts. Affiliated with the Photographic Society of New Zealand, it is part of a network of photographic clubs and societies across New Zealand. Each year, the Salon has run a competition for New Zealand photographers, with the 2019 Salon attracting 1,800 entries from 600 entrants including members from 33 photographic clubs and societies from Whangarei to Southland and overseas. The Salon convenes independent panels of six selectors to judge entries in various categories such as Impressionism, Scapes, People, Open, Abstract, Fantasy, Street Photography, Monochrome and Colour.

All awarded prints and digital images will be publicly exhibited at Mairangi Arts Centre and all accepted photographs are reproduced in a beautiful printed catalogue. The show is currently exhibited at Mairangi Art Centre until June 17 – entry is free.

Where
Mairangi Bay Art Centre, 20 Hastings Rd, Mairangi Bay, Auckland

When
Mon-Fri 9:30am-4pm
Sat-Sun 10am-2pm

2019 North Shore Salon of Photography

Gold medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – People category, print

Silver Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – People category, print

Silver Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – Street Category, digital

Silver Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – Scapes category, print

Bronze Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – Scapes category, print

Honours – 2019 North Shore Salon – Street category, digital

Acceptance – 2019 North Shore Salon – Street category, digital

Honours – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open category, digital

Acceptance – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open Monochrome, print

Honours – 2019 North Shore Salon – People category, print

Highly Commended – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open category, digital

Honours – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open category, digital

Bronze Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open Colour category, print

Bronze Medal – 2019 North Shore Salon – Open Monochrome category, print

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Drought

Drought © Ilan Wittenberg 2018 Limited Edition of 9 + 2AP

This image represents drought. Climate change has brought drastic changes to many regions on earth. Global warming is causing severe drought. Huge areas that were once fertile are no longer suitable for agriculture. Millions of people are already impacted by these catastrophic changes. A deadly civil war in Syria has erupted when the government decreased the allocation of irrigation water to farmers. Vast regions in Iran are no longer cultivated and the population is helpless. They cannot grow any fruits or vegetables. The earth is dry and so is the woman’s skin, both are cracked. The woman is bare, she is completely exposed – just like our land. This is a desperate call to stop the devastating impact of industrial pollution on our planet.

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Woman with a Musket

Nat Hugill

Davi Santos

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Kristine Green

(c) Ilan wittenberg

Perry De Mille

Stuff Article: Ilan Wittenberg exposes the Bare Truth

Photographer Ilan Wittenberg exposes the Bare Truth in portrait exhibition

Britt Mann 05:00, May 22 2016

A former drug addict, a burns victim and a burly builder are hardly typical male models.

But these men – and around 100 more – are the subjects of an Auckland photographer’s latest exhibition.

Ilan Wittenberg began his project, Bare Truth, a year ago, with an idea to portray New Zealand men as they truly are.

Bare-chested, blemished, scarred, and tattooed, the men’s histories are etched on their skin. One of the men had received skin grafts as a child – a pot of boiling jelly had ended up on his chest. Another has a prayer inked onto his arm.

“It’s interesting where people find strength,” Wittenberg says.

At first, his subjects were friends and family (Wittenberg’s 21-year-old son is among the men featured in the exhibition).

But as his collection and his confidence grew, Wittenberg began approaching strangers on the street. Market-goers, roadworkers, hedge-trimmers – any man who looks like he might have a story to tell.

“Out of every 10, four say ‘no’, four say ‘maybe’, two say ‘yes’, and one shows up.”

Wittenberg spent an hour speaking with the men before they went in front of the camera, asking them about their families, jobs, and the tales behind their tattoos.

The first photograph was of a friend who’d resisted participating in the project until the day before he departed New Zealand forever.

“He wasn’t very tidy – not scruffy, but he didn’t take great care of himself,” Wittenberg says of the man.

“In the photograph, you will see he puts his hand up to chest and he touches his heart… he has a little bit of sadness in his eyes.

“I thought, ‘this is real’.”

Wittenberg has about 100 photographs in the Bare Truth collection. Each of his subjects received an A4 copy of their photo, as thanks.

Some of the men were happy with the result, others felt confronted by the image.

“They didn’t actually show it to their wives, because they never saw themselves that way,” Wittenberg says.

The series is inspired by the work of famed photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Platon. Shot before a blank background and converted into monochrome, the photographs depict a stark spectrum of Kiwi masculinity.

“When people look straight into the camera they actually look at the person on the other side, they look at the person who views them, and you can read their eye, you can actually see their soul – that’s what I felt.”

Bare Truth is Wittenberg’s third exhibition this year, showing in Sydney earlier this month, and in Auckland in June.

While images of topless women have become cliches of Western society, there’s something about a photo of a shirtless man – unretouched – which makes observers take a closer look.

“We see thousands of photos every day – on social media, in magazines, on tv, on the internet, billboards – and we ignore…” Wittenberg says.

“If you go to an exhibition, it’s not like looking at something on the computer… you stand in front of a photograph… and you let it talk to you.”

Visitors to the Sydney exhibition offered a range of interpretations, Wittenberg says.

“They say this person is looking very confident, very strong. And that person looks a bit… shy, and that person looks dangerous like, I wouldn’t want to meet that guy down a dark alley or something like that.

“It’s so interesting how in a fraction of a second we judge other people, even when they’re not there, just based on their body language – their eyes, their shoulders.”

But Wittenberg hopes the exhibition will also raise awareness of men’s health issues. Without a shirt, it’s difficult to hide the hallmarks of past surgeries, or chemotherapy.

And the camera offers insight into the soul.

“When people look straight into the camera they actually look at the person on the other side, they look at the person who views them,” Wittenberg says.

“You can read their eye, you can see their soul – that’s what I felt.”

Wittenberg emigrated from Israel with his wife and two children in 2001. The North Shore resident had been working as a business analyst before he took up portrait photography full time in 2011.

While portraits pay the bills, the Bare Truth project was a labour done for love, not money.

Quoting business leader Stephen Covey, Wittenberg says: “We’re here to live, to laugh, to love and to leave a legacy.”

“We’re not getting any younger… my legacy is about pictures I do.”

Bare Truth will be exhibited at Northart gallery in Northcote, Auckland from June 5 – 22. Admission is free.

The exhibition will also feature in the 2016 Auckland Festival of Photography.

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Lest We Forget

New Zealand entered the Second World War by declaring war on Nazi Germany on September 3rd 1939. Around 140,000 New Zealand personnel served overseas for the Allied war effort. At its peak in July 1942, New Zealand had 154,549 men and women under arms. By the end of the war a total of 194,000 men and 10,000 women had served in the armed forces. On Anzac Day, April 25 2014, NZIPP members across the country combined their efforts for a project of national significance: to photograph New Zealand’s last surviving World War Two servicemen and women. These portraits are gifted to the Royal New Zealand Returned Services Association and to the National Archives, showing our veterans that they are remembered and that the sacrifices they made for our freedom is still honoured. This is the story of 21 World War Two veterans.

Sensual Hannah

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Elena and Catalin

Ruby and Aurora

Beautiful Talia

(c) Ilan Wittenberg

Abby Pearl

Bare Truth on TV3 Story

Men stripped bare

Tuesday 31st May 2016

Rebecca Kamm, The Wireless

We spoke to Auckland photographer Ilan Wittenberg about the thinking behind his latest collection.

Beyond the shiny, white-toothed fitness models who beam out in all their taut glory from men’s health magazines, images of topless men in the public sphere are all but absent. In obvious contrast to photographs of near-naked women’s bodies, at this point part of the furniture, we’re rarely invited to inspect the male torso.

That’s one reason Bare Truth, a collection by accomplished Auckland photographer Ilan Wittenberg, stands out. Another is his knife-sharp focus on every bodily detail of his 100-or-so unsmiling subjects, which include a former drug addict and a burns victim.

“I treat the photos in such a way that you see the hair, the pimples, the scars, everything,” Wittenberg says of his unapologetic approach. “It’s interesting, because we don’t see people like that anywhere. If you go to the beach you’ll see topless men, but you don’t get close to them like that.”

“Raw”, says the artist, whose work can be found at Auckland’s Northart gallery from June 5-22, is what he hears most in response to Bare Truth. But the photographs have no rough edges; they are exquisitely, acutely rendered. That’s intentional: Wittenberg chose specific lighting and processing techniques that would bring the literal mark life leaves on our bodies into sharp relief.

It’s also something of a warning. “There’s this idea that men are stronger,” says Wittenberg, whose 18-year old son features in the collection (he bares the scar of a tumor removed when he was small). “That may be true in some strength-related areas; men have more muscle tissue, for example. But when it comes to mental health or emotional health, the fact is that women actually talk more. They share more. They’re more open.”

Conceived when Wittenberg took a topless portrait of a friend and was struck by the result, Bare Truth is designed to flip any lack of openness on its head. “I looked at the image of my friend and I thought, there’s some meaning behind his eyes. I could see his vulnerability.”

He began to approach men on the street. “Out of every ten, four said maybe, four said no, two said yes, and one showed up.” But as the collection grew, so did their trust, and the project picked up pace.

Stories are unavoidable when nakedness enters the picture. “Suddenly [when] they take off their shirt I see they’ve had a triple bypass, or chemo, or some other surgery,” he says.

“I asked them about their tattoos: What is it? What does it mean to you? One of them said, ‘Well, I was a drug addict and this tattoo helps me to remind myself how to be sober, and how good it is to be clean. Another said, ‘Oh, this is about my best friend who died.’ We’re all vulnerable.”

He gave his subjects a print out of their final image and, overall, reactions were positive. The men loved their portraits and were proud to have taken part. One even used the word “therapeutic”.

That didn’t mean they were all ready to share the experience. “Some men didn’t show it to their wives, because they think [their image] is too confronting. They’ve asked their daughters to do it for them; to explain the context to their wives for them when they pass away. Because it is confronting. We never show ourselves like this to other people.”