Thinker Series: Clinton Bailey

‘This Place’ explores the complexity of Israel and the West Bank, as place and metaphor, through the eyes of twelve internationally acclaimed photographers. Their highly individualized works combine to create not a single, monolithic vision, but rather a diverse and fragmented portrait, alive to all the rifts and paradoxes of this important and much contested space.

The project follows in the tradition of such projects as the Mission Héliographique in nineteenth-century France and the Farm Security Administration in the United States, which gathered artists who use photography to ask essential questions about culture, society and the inner lives of individuals. Initiated by photographer Frederic Brenner, the completed project consists of a traveling exhibition, companion publications and a program of live events.

The artists began their residencies in Israel with an exploratory mission, in which they traveled throughout Israel and the West Bank and met with a variety of thinkers. ‘This Place’ initiator Frederic Brenner later filmed interviews with many of these thinkers. Here are some highlights from one of the twelve interviews: Clinton Bailey

Dr. Clinton Bailey is a world renowned authority on the Bedouins. Born and raised in the U.S., he has lived in Israel for more than 50 years. For many years, in addition to his research and writings on Bedouin life, Dr. Bailey has championed the cause of Bedouin rights in Israel. In 1994, he was awarded the prestigious Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award, presented annually by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

In the following video, Clinton Bailey immerges us in the Bedouin’s culture, language and poetry.

He then reflects on the very notion of survival- a center to this nomadic culture- and an echo to the questions raised by the existence of Israel.

See more on the Thinker Series (link on the bottom of the page).

Discover more of the project on this-place.org

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