On View Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 39

deeply resonant place, drawn from the combination of these individual photographic sensibilities and approaches. The conception of This Place began for its initiator, Frédéric Brenner, in 2005. Brenner, who has been photographing Jewish communities around the world since 1981, was driven by a desire to facilitate a visual counter-argument to the prevailing, often polarized, rep- resentations of Israel and the West Bank in both national and international news media. When Brenner decided to invite a group of the finest photographers in the world to spend time in Israel and the West Bank to create their own portraits of the place, some were intrigued and others were wary of being used for political gain, or were not interested. But Brenner ultimately convinced OnV i e w Ma g a z i n e . c om • O Stephen Shore, Hebron, 2011; © Stephen Shore c t o b e r /D e c e m b e r 2015 39