'The time to have a show has come'

Looking at photographer Esteban Alterman while his friends were hanging up his works for an upcoming exhibition, one would never guess this gravely ill artist who is about to celebrate his first solo exhibition in Israel may also be putting on his last one.

The 46-year-old, who has worked for The Jerusalem Report as photographer and photo editor, confidently moves around in his wheelchair, giving clear directions and gesticulating energetically, full of verve and excitement.

"When you do an exhibition, the exhibition has to be the end of a chapter of your life, or mark the end of a project, the end of a cycle or the end of something," Alterman told Anglo File Tuesday night, while one photo after the next was attached to the wall of the exhibition hall.

"I am at the end of a chapter in my life. So I thought to myself: Okay, the time to have a show has come. So why not?"

Several months ago, Alterman was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative illness also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He says that when they heard the bitter news, some of his friends "thought a good way to help me would be by organizing an exhibition of my work." Alterman, who has worked for the magazine since moving here from Argentina in the early 1990s, says he doesn't know "exactly" who they are because they "want to keep a low profile," though he has some idea.

When his friends realized he wouldn't agree to their proposal, they recruited Hirsh Goodman, the Report's South Africa-born founder and former editor, to persuade him. Goodman invited Alterman for coffee and told him that photography legend David Rubinger - who is most famous for his 1967 picture of the three paratroopers at the Western Wall - would be involved as curator if he agreed to do a show. "I couldn't say no anymore," Alterman said.

"I've been a journalist for 47 years and Esteban is as professional a photographer as I've ever worked with," Hanan Sher, a former senior editor at the Jerusalem Report, told Anglo File. "He likes to shoot portraits in the style of Arnold Newman - one of the most famous portrait photographers in the world - and (celebrity photographer) Annie Leibovitz also shoots the same style. You don't only look at the face of the subject but rather you use the surroundings to develop the character, in order to tell a story. A portrait is not just the face a person in front of a background."

One of Alterman's personal favorites is his photo of late Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek speaking to a crowd, his only portrait not showing the subject's face. "I like it because I think most people would recognize him even from the back. You don't need to see his face, everybody knows him because he was so popular. But I think it's still a portrait."

Perhaps the most famous person Alterman portrayed in his 20-year-long career was Yoko Ono, he said, but her photo is not among the pieces chosen for the exhibition.

Instead, Alterman and Rubinger opted for portraits of former prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir - in front of a portrait of Ze'ev Jabotinsky - and Ehud Olmert - next to a campaign poster after he was elected mayor of Jerusalem - as well as writer David Grossman, comic artist Uri Fink, Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, Holocaust survivors, Orthodox feminists, local painters, journalists and other figures representing the diversity of Israeli life.

"Life in a Frame - Portraits by Esteban Alterman" opens today at noon with a festive ceremony at the Jerusalem Theater. The 35 portraits will be on display there until November 12.