Reut Alster

Beyond the Line

A shoot day always starts from my parents’ home in the community I grew up in – Beit El. I plan the route in advance, so I can visit several settlements in the same area defined as “rural communities.” Some of the places are well known to me and some of them I visit for the first time. Either way, wandering through these spaces always engenders a strong desire to meet them anew. Although the photographs portray an inhabited place, there are no figures or direct human activity. More than anything else, I am interested in the cars parking on the sides of the road.
The project depicts controversial places in Israeli political discourse, a space defined as a settlement beyond the Green Line. Each photograph feels detached from its surroundings, as though it is the only thing there. The project was driven by my desire to go back and look for the landscape of my childhood, out of longing for childish naivety and out of love and respect for the faith and values I was raised with