Skip Schiel, teaching photography in Gaza in May 2006. (Photo by Ibrahim Shadra, posted on Schiel’s blog)
A photographer who has chronicled the Israel-Palestine conflict since 2003 arrives in Sitka this weekend.
Skip Schiel will speak and show his photography to the public on Sunday, and working with high school students next week. Schiel has made frequent trips to the Mideast since 2003. He’s made about seven trips in the last nine years.
“The motivation for this comes from my background in Catholicism, where I always, as a youth, wanted to go to the Holy Land and walk in the footsteps of Jesus,” he said. “And then, growing frustration with the situation there, and a wish to do something about it using my craft.”
Schiel bills himself as a “participatory photographer.” That often means breaking the rules most photojournalists adhere to.
“The principle is: Be in the scene. Along with that, I would suggest vulnerability. People respond to this pretty well,” Schiel said. “Another aspect of conventional photojournalism is to use a long lens – to hide behind the camera, to not be vulnerable, to resist somebody saying ‘delete that photograph,’ or to question somebody who says ‘I don’t want to be photographed’ and say, ‘Well, why not? It’s going to be to your advantage.’ I wouldn’t do that. But I would make myself apparent as a photographer, so people could say right away, ‘Outta here buddy.’ And it doesn’t happen very often. Usually when I make myself vulnerable and people see I respect their opportunity to say no, they’re less likely to say no.”
Schiel will talk about the hydropolitics of Israel-Palestine conflict on Sunday at Kettleson Memorial Library. His presentation, which is sponsored by the group “Sitkans for Peace and Justice,” begins at 7 p.m.
