Red Skies – But I wanted something extra – Yosef Hochman – Solo Exhibition, Photography
'Red Skies'
The new exhibition opening on March 10, 2018, at the Givat Haviva Joint Art Center, is a solo exhibition by photographer Yosef Hochman, summarizing over half a century of creative work. Since the 1950s, from the moment his hand first held a camera as a teenager, Yosef Hochman has been documenting life across various scales—individual, kibbutz, society, and the world.
As an idealist, a member of Hashomer Hatzair, a pioneer preparing for immigration to Israel, and later as a kibbutz member, Hochman accompanied the development of the Zionist ethos while capturing and documenting its less picturesque aspects. Some of these images were even self-censored by him for years due to the difficulty of presenting and processing them as a society.
As a member of Kibbutz Harel until its split, and later as a member of Kibbutz Ga'ash, his photographs tell the story of the kibbutz's role in the formation of Israeli society, while occasionally reflecting on the kibbutz from a personal perspective.
As a member of the art group 'HaMeshutaf Kibbutz' (The Kibbutz Collective), which operated from the late 1970s through the 1990s as a group of kibbutz artists dealing with art, society, activism, and the environment, he also documented one of the peaks of the group's activity around the mansion in Kibbutz Ga'ash.
Hochman is one of the primary documentary photographers who recorded key milestones in the political and social formation of the state, including: the expulsion of refugees from the village of Imwas near Latrun and the liberation of the Western Wall in Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, the Black Panthers, the early Peace Now demonstrations, May Day rallies, the evacuation of Yamit, Sinai during the Yom Kippur War, Egypt after the peace treaty, the citizens' revolution in Portugal in 1975, Berlin in the 1980s, and the "Mothers" protests in Argentina in 2012.
The delicate seam between his strong documentary baseline and his idealistic perception of humanity and society, along with subtle personal touches that seem to slip in "by accident" (yet do not), together with the vast volume of his body of work and the historical perspective available today, create the power of his photographic work.
Extended Texts: Red Skies – Yosef Hochman
..But I wanted something extra, extra in addition to what exists.
Photographer Yosef Hochman's solo exhibition brings together more than half a century of activity. Since the 1950s, Hochman has documented and photographed life across human, kibbutz, societal, and global dimensions. As an idealist, member of Hashomer Hatzair, and kibbutznik, he accompanied the development of the Zionist ethos while also turning his lens toward its less favorable sides, self-censoring some materials for years out of consideration for society's ability to absorb them. Through his membership in Kibbutz Harel and Kibbutz Ga'ash, his photos reflect both the collective role of the kibbutz in building Israel and personal reflections on it. His documentation of the 'HaMeshutaf Kibbutz' group around the Ga'ash castle captured a landmark artistic and activist protest movement, serving as one of its main visual chroniclers.
Hochman stands as one of the key photographers documenting critical social and political intersections in Israel's history, focusing on where the common individual is impacted by larger societal mechanisms, injustice, inequality, and war (as curator Tali Tamir notes). His work spans the expulsion of refugees from Imwas, the Western Wall in 1967, the Black Panthers, early Peace Now rallies, May Day protests, the Sinai Peninsula, post-peace Egypt, Portugal's 1975 Revolution, 1980s Berlin, and Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 2012.
Such an exhibition illuminates the present in light of the past while raising questions about the role of documentary photography today. In an era where post-modernism, digital image processing, staged realities, and fake news deconstruct objective truth, the term 'documentary' is once again placed on the table for redefinition.
On the surface, the exhibition highlights a male-dominated reality. However, Hochman's gaze exposes the power dynamics of society and presents an alternative perception—one that some might describe as holding feminine qualities. His position allowed him access to spaces rarely frequented by women at the time, yet his significant choices lay in what he chose to show, creating cracks in the rigid, militant, and patriarchal norms of the era. In literary terms, Hochman could be described as an 'anti-hero'—a conscientious photographer who captured both the ethos and its darker sides, holding back images until society was ready to confront them.
Hanoch Levin wrote in his play 'Labor of Life':..Writers and artists, cultural world, look at us! .."Go to hell," says the writer, "you with your ridiculous lives!" –Even though the writer's life is no less absurd –"You're holding humanity back!", he says, "We stand on the threshold of a new era," –They are always standing on the threshold of a new era – "People are taking off,"he says, "to the moon, and you stick to shoes like mud, and keep grinding the same garbage!"..... May a writer (artist, photographer*) noble-minded, conscientious,with a soul and heart arise. He will understand. He will listen and understand.He will hear our whole life story, he will find the right words,he will create something beautiful out of us, deep, full of compassion and feeling.For despite all errors and flaws, there is still material in us for good creation.Oh God, he will understand us, he will understand, he will understand!('Labor of Life' / Hanoch Levin / 1989)
Writer's Note
Yosef Hochman wanted something extra, extra in addition to what exists. He still does. Through his camera shutter, he asks us not to give up and to attain that 'extra' we lost along the way. Growing up on the kibbutz values of the 1970s and 1980s shaped a generation's view connecting person, kibbutz, society, and state. The delicate seam in Hochman's work between strong documentary grounds and an idealistic view of humanity forms the essence and strength of his photography.
Anat Lidror, Curator.
Yosef Hochman – Photographer/Society/Photographer
Tali Tamir
In Yosef Hochman's hands, the camera is a tool and a gatekeeper. Armed with his lens, Hochman collected evidence on a world filled with injustices, struggles, and wars. Born in Argentina, he brought a heightened sensitivity to social inequality, a natural skepticism toward power structures, and a civic duty to prevent injustice from fading into oblivion.
Much of his work was created as a kibbutz member (Harel, Ga'ash) and presented within 'HaMeshutaf Kibbutz' (1977–1990). Yet his camera looked far beyond the kibbutz yard to society at large. Hochman was among the first to photograph development towns and impoverished neighborhoods, pointing out social gaps in Israel. Rather than celebrating existing structures, his art challenged them, seeking to give voice to the silenced and marginalized.
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