Gaza Photo Album

During three weeks at the turn of the year 2008/2009, Israeli military implemented Operation Cast Led – an attack against the population of Gaza. More than 2,000 houses were completely destroyed, about 20,000 were damaged more or less badly, and around 900 civilians were killed. Swedish photographer Kent Klich arrived in Gaza when the more acute Israeli acts of war had ceased, and the population tried to recreate some kind of ordinary everyday life from the wreckage. His task was to depict the shelled family homes of affected Gazans from their private perspective. In doing this, he collaborated with fact finders from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. In a serie of disturbingly beautiful pictures Kent Klich has mapped the annihilating effects of total destruction in the small symbolic corner of the Middle East that is the locus of it’s endemic controversy, and walked the viewer through the shattered window into Gaza’s very heart. Kent Klich studied psychology at Göteborg University, Sweden, before turning to photography and film. His previous books are The Book of Beth, El Niño – Children of the Streets, Mexico City, Children of Ceausescu (with a foreword by 2009 Nobel laureate, Herta Müller), Out of Sight and Picture Imperfect (2009 winner of The Swedish Photo Book Prize).