Dead Water
Dead Water
The Dead Sea is a salt lake with no way out. Surrounding this unique lake
grew an industry of pleasure, beauty, healing and myth. People come from
all over the world to experience the wonder of the Dead Sea. Kibuts Kalia
is one of many small cooperative settlements, hotels and resorts, along the
sea that have tried to form a haven from the desert’s abyss. Kalia was well
known for their water amusement park, the Atraktzia (attraction – word that
was borrowed from English), as an oasis of sweet water in the sea of death.
Many Israeli’s share memories of Atraktzia as part of their tradition of
family vacations and weekends. I have never had the chance of experiencing
Kalia’s Atraktzia myself, and yet I grew up knowing of a miraculous
fantastic oasis in the middle of nowhere. Years after, In one of my trips
down south I had my first encounter with Atraktzia. It was hot, dry and
colorless, a pale reflection of its past glory. Te once amazing water park
stood empty, abandon and waterless. After doing some research it came to my
knowledge that in the year 2000 the water park was shutdown due to the
politic tension in the area as well as financial and legal problems. Since
then, for 13 years, it stands empty. The stories of others , on which i
based my memories , of the place I have never visited , were far from the
place I could have now see for myself. And yet, I still feel nostalgic in
regards to the fall of the attractions from its glory; not owning even one
true memory of Atraktzia haven’t prevented me from yearning its past. As I
photographed the park it became smaller, paler and lifeless. In this body
of work I do not try to recreate the park, or resurrect it, but document a
place that so many people had strong feeling to, as children, and try and
understand that glorious period that me myself had never got to experience.
The Dead Sea is a salt lake with no way out. Surrounding this unique lake
grew an industry of pleasure, beauty, healing and myth. People come from
all over the world to experience the wonder of the Dead Sea. Kibuts Kalia
is one of many small cooperative settlements, hotels and resorts, along the
sea that have tried to form a haven from the desert’s abyss. Kalia was well
known for their water amusement park, the Atraktzia (attraction – word that
was borrowed from English), as an oasis of sweet water in the sea of death.
Many Israeli’s share memories of Atraktzia as part of their tradition of
family vacations and weekends. I have never had the chance of experiencing
Kalia’s Atraktzia myself, and yet I grew up knowing of a miraculous [read more...]
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