Formerly of Scarsdale, NY and currently based in Israel, the photographer Yoram Kafkafi works primarily in a documentarian mode. In his “Genesis 1:1” series, Yoram captures desert landscapes, focusing on the Namibian sand dunes. His imagery touches on a sense of impermanence, as viewed through society's collective eye, and sheer awe of the natural world around us. Utilizing techniques of light and shadow, the architectural mass of a phenomenon like a sand dune becomes a symbol of what it means to inhabit planetary space. With sand as his primary subject-matter, Yoram is tasked with showing how stability can emerge, as well as showcasing the frailty human constructions have in the face of entropy.

Yoram recreates not just the alienated majesty of sand dunes, but consecrates them as a force against which human endeavors seems miniscule. When figures are present, they are dwarfed by the monumentality of the dunes. In Trees, for example, trees as well as roads are perspectively placed before a dune, taking on a numinous quality—as though furtively dancing before the dunes’ apparent stillness. Likewise, On the Edge draws our eye to the juxtaposition of the two tiny figures carefully balanced along the delicate line of the vast dune. Yoram's more abstract compositions speak to a similar theme: however impossible such images might look at first sight, they capture the mythic grandeur of impermeable motion clashing against a natural stillness.