SETTLEMENT (2002-2004) / MONUMENT (2002-2004)

For the SETTLEMENT series Gaston Zvi Ickowicz travelled around on the West Bank for two years. He photographed the houses, roads and other structures of the Israeli colonists, who themselves make little use of them because their life is lived predominately in Israel. For MONUMENT Ickowicz focused on the wall that Israel had constructed in the same area in 2002 out of fear of attacks by Palestinians. On the Israeli side the wall is painted in an attempt to have it blend into the landscape; on the Palestinian side it is left as raw concrete. Ickowicz shot both series at some distance to show how the structures clash with their surroundings. In his eyes the Israeli colonist is an intruder who refashions nature for his own ends and in doing so disrupts the landscape and the lives of the original residents.