Children of the Sun

an Exhibition of work

and

within

a Book of images

by photographer

Nurit Yardeni

When Nurit Yardeni first started taking photographs some thirty years ago, she wanted to capture the essence and very soul of her subjects.  She has practiced her self-taught technique over the years and developed and honed her style to create an impressive collection of stunning images drawn from many remote parts of the world.

What she seeks is the essence of love within communities where the individuals have a primal connection with their environment as well as their society.  Wherever she goes, she looks for this element to nourish her own need to find the purity, love and genesis of life in these isolated, ethnic groups and attempts to tell their story through her images. Once at her chosen destination, armed with her camera and her smile, she will look for the shots that capture the simplicity, humanity and grace of her subjects.

Her experiences have been extraordinary and as diverse as the many regions she has visited.  These include Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, China, India and more recently Georgia.  With her fragile beauty and slender figure clothed in her customary white, she must make a fascinating sight to some of the indigenous peoples she ventures to meet. To strike up a rapport, Nurit researches their needs and takes them appropriate gifts such as spectacles, food, or toys and creates empathy by using body language and playing and cooking with them.  She also finds that taking a Polaroid shot to give to her subjects will break the ice and she was delighted when an old man in Nagaland started to tidy his hair when he saw his own image in the photo. 

Inevitably some of her travels have taken her into dangerous situations.  She has found herself in prison for inadvertently photographing a subject with a military base as a backdrop, was attacked by an Ethiopian warrior whose photograph appears in the book and had to run for her life when a native woman started to destroy her camera. For someone who is inherently shy, gentle and not intrusive, when she sees the shot she wants, she becomes completely focused on that picture before lifting her camera and taking the photograph as determinedly as any seasoned photojournalist. 

A selection of Nurit's remarkable pictures will be shown in her Exhibition - Children of the Sun - at Hoopers Gallery, 15 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AA, from 11-15 March 2008.   The exhibition will also feature some pictures from her new book within which will also be launched at the exhibition.

Children of the Sun will be curated by Colin Ford CBE, founding head of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, and former Keeper of Film & Photography at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Prints will be on sale in support of Nurit's favoured charity Save a Child's Heart (SACH).  

Every 29 hours a child's life is saved by SACH in co-operation with the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel.  Patients ranging in age from infants to teenagers are brought from all corners of the world including China, Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Iran, Jordan, Moldova, Nigeria, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Vietnam and the island of Zanzibar to receive treatment for heart problems that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

When Nurit Yardeni is not travelling, she shares her time between Israel and her beautiful riverside home in London. She is available for interview. 

Publicity enquiries and requests for images to

Fiona Spencer Thomas

 fspencerthomas@googlemail.com

020 7834 3207

Information for editors:

Cameras:    Formerly: two Minolta SLR bodies, each with a Tamron 28-300 mm zoom lens.

Currently: Canon D5 SLR body with Canon 28-105mm and 70-300mm lenses.

Photographer's website:    www.nurityardeni.com

Hoopers Gallery website:   www.hoopersgallery.co.uk

15 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AA - 020 7490 3907

The closest tube station is Farringdon. Buses: 55, 63 and 243 from Farringdon.

Exhibition Opening Times:  Monday 10 March to Saturday 15 March 2008, 11am to 4.30pm (6.30pm Thursday).

Publication: Book featuring 83 uncaptioned photographs in black and white and colour, (referenced and captioned in appendix).  £37 hardback. Cloth bound. Published by IPD. 

ISBN 978 0955 457104

SACH website: www.saveachildsheart.com

Nurit Yardeni