The Photographers on Exhibit:
Natalie Behring
Natalie is a freelance photographer based in Beijing, China, with more than a decade of experience in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. She has worked with the world’s most reputable newspapers, magazines and NGO’s, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Discovery Channel, Greenpeace, the United Nations, and many others. Her working languages include English, Mandarin Chinese and German.
Jonah Mink
A graduate of Brandeis University in the U.S., Jonah is proficient in Spanish and Hebrew, and has a basic knowledge of Arabic. He has been a volunteer teacher of English as a Second Language in the U.S., in Spain, and is a Brandeis Jewish education program Hebrew teacher and bar mitzvah tutor. He also served in Massachusetts and Israel as a certified emergency medical technician and a volunteer ambulance medic and has also been a group leader for Habitat for Humanity in Waltham, Mass.
Between July and September 2005 and between September 2006 and the present, Jonah has been a volunteer, an intern, and student coordinator for SACH. He is based in the SACH home in Azur and has begun to manage a large network of SACH supporters on campuses throughout North America and Israel. He recently completed an in-depth photographic essay focused on the positive interactions between people from enemy countries who came together in this program. He received support for his documentary project with Save a Child’s Heart (2006-2007) from the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust fellowship, the Maimonides Medical Society and the Radius Foundation.
Sheila Shalhevet
In June 1970, Sheila, a single mother, immigrated to Israel from the U.S., where she had begun a career in social work. She married Professor Yosi Shalhevet in 1972 and became the mother of two more children and is now the grandmother of four.
In April 1990, she and her husband moved to Beijing, where Yosi became the first official representative of Israel to China, as head of the Liaison Office of the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities. Sheila also worked full time and traveled widely, producing dozens of photo albums, documenting the events and everyday life of their time in China. On their return to Israel, she resumed her career in social work and it was around this time, that she first met Ami Cohen, whose parents were long time friends of her husband.
Since her early retirement in 1998, she has studied photography and has had several successful one-woman exhibitions and many group shows. Sheila has won prizes for her work and has had articles published, alongside her photographs, in the Israeli Journal, Teva Ha'Dvarim, as well as abroad. She has produced a series of photographic diaries, some of which have been exhibited, with others scheduled to be shown in the near future.
Since 2001, Sheila has been totally devoted to the Save a Child's Heart Foundation, documenting every child who comes through the organization and writing weekly newsletters. She has traveled with SACH to China and to Jordan, and is determined that every SACH Child be remembered by name and face.
Nati Shohat
In 1990, Nati established the Flash 90 Photography Agency which now employs seven permanent staff photographers and four freelancers. This leading photographic news agency supplies photographs to newspapers, magazines, books, brochures, posters and public relations agencies in Israel and abroad.
He has 18 years of experience in news documentary photography, as well as artistic and portrait work. His works have been exhibited in different venues, and in most of the major newspapers and books in Israel and around the world.
Debra Silver
Debra was born in Canada and made Aliyah at 18 to Israel, just before the start of the 1973 war. She served in the IDF between 1976 and 1978, returning to Canada following her service. She worked in theatre and studied clown and mask work in Toronto and began art studies, including sculpture and photography. She co-produced a cabaret show in Montreal and Toronto prior to returning to Israel with her husband and baby daughter. Debra began sculpting in 1987 and has exhibited in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Amsterdam, Geneva, Toronto and Rockville, MD. She has sculptures in Herzog Hospital, Jerusalem and parks in Ra'anana, Haifa and Canada. In 1996 she became active in the newly formed SACH support group and subsequently joined the new board. In 2006, Debra assisted with volunteer base formation for SACH Canada and sponsored new print promotional materials for SACH, as well as a film, "Betty's Story" and lyrics to the closing song. In 2007 she joined the new International Board of SACH for public relations.
David Silverman
Between 1990 and 1999, David worked part-time as a photographer on archaeological excavations, as a darkroom assistant in professional studios, and then, as a photojournalist in Jerusalem.
In 2000, he worked as a photographer and photoarchivist in London, and traveled back and forth between the UK and the Holy Land as the primary photographer for the Michelin “In Your Pocket” guide book to Jerusalem.
In September 2000, David commenced working with Getty Images in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, covering the news, as well as devoting time to photo features, such as his reportage on Save a Child's Heart. His photos have been published in almost every major newspaper and news magazine in the world, and have also been used as cover photos for books on Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gili Yaari
Gili was born in Israel in 1971. He received a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1997, and has worked in several engineering positions.
Gili started to photograph in 1992, and describes himself as "self trained". In 2005, he studied Documentary Photography at ”Contact Photography School” in Tel Aviv, which led him to focus on long term documentary photography projects dealing with humanitarian and social issues. He has participated in several group exhibitions at Tel Aviv University and Al Saraya Gallery for Culture and Arts, Nazareth. Yaari’s works appear in various Israeli magazines and daily papers. Since 2007, he is a contributing photographer for the Jerusalem based photo agency Flash90.
