Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Biblical Heroes in Dire Straits

Israeli photographer Adi Nes began his latest series, Biblical Stories, at a moment of crisis in his own life. “I just ended a long-term relationship; I was alone with no money, no apartment, no job. The economic situation was very bad in Israel; most of my friends were unemployed. Also, my father passed away,” he said in an interview with the Forward. “I chose the Bible as a framework for this series because, at a time when everything was breaking apart, I was looking for my roots.”

Nes, a gay man raised in a conservative Sephardic home, said he wanted to “work with people who lost their identity,” using “biblical heroes with issues of their home.” To emphasize this message, he staged Israeli actors dressed as homeless people as a way to appeal to viewers’ hearts. An exhibit of the work opens today at the Tel Aviv Museum.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.