Local Testimony 2025

Local Testimony, the annual exhibition of photo-journalism and documentary photography, provides a platform for local documentary photography, conveys its cultural qualities and manifests its social significance as an expression of complex aspects of the local reality. The winning photos were selected by an independent jury comprised of leading professionals in the spheres of photography, curating, and media. The categories are: News, Nature and Environment, Religion and Faith, Society and Community, Sport, Urbanism and Culture, and Long Exposure.

Dana Wohlfeiler-Lalkin, Founder and Curator in Charge: 

Local Testimony 2025 is the third consecutive exhibition documenting the events of October 7, the Iron Swords War, and the determined public campaign for the release of the hostages. In early October 2025, after two years of struggle, a peace agreement was signed to end the war in Gaza. Soon after, the twenty surviving hostages who remained in captivity returned home, all on the same day.

The dreads of the war in Gaza and Lebanon, the unrest in the West Bank, the missile and drone attacks from Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, the outcry for the hostages’ release, and the deep political and social rifts – all have been captured by photographers working tirelessly throughout this period. The immense human cost, the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the growing international pressure, and the unprecedented length of the war have left heavy marks on individuals and on the region as a whole.

Despite the agreement reached, the future remains uncertain. The images displayed in the exhibition are a testimony to a fragile existence, in a time when governmental responsibility has eroded and democracy itself seems endangered. Yet within a harsh reality of grief, loss, and wounds both visible and unseen, and against the attempts to manipulate truth for political ends, emerges the image of a civil society striving to hold on to its humanity and to shape its own future.

Photographers have accompanied those affected by the war through long processes of healing and renewal. Their sustained and sensitive work fostered bonds of trust with the people they documented: the kidnapped and released, the bereaved, the displaced, and those who dedicated themselves to the cause of returning the hostages home. Out of these encounters emerged an intimate and piercing human document – one that reflects the resilience and pain of Israeli society in one of its most difficult chapters.

Founded in 2003, Local Testimony has been exhibited at MUZA, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv since 2009. Its long partnership with the museum underscores the cultural and historical significance of documentary photography in Israel. The photographs of Local Testimony will one day serve as part of the enduring record of the events of October 7.