Morel Derfler 1956-2001


Morel Derfler immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1961. He studied at the WIZO College in Haifa and later taught there and served as the Photography Department Coordinator. Morel also taught photography at the Musrara School of Photography in Jerusalem and at Camera Obscura in Tel-Aviv. Morel was awarded several prizes for his photographic achievements and eventually became the 'house photographer' at the Haifa Municipal and Habima theatres. Jenny's devoted husband and the loving father of Arena and Yam.

On the day of 9.9.2001 Morel got off the train at the Nahariya Station on his way to a new photographic project. At the same time Muchamad Shakar Chabeishi, an Israeli Arab born in Acre, the father of six, approached the station, blew himself up and killed three, Morel among them.

Today, exactly five years after the death of Morel Derfler, we wish to perpetuate the memory of a gifted photographer and artist, to show our respect for his work, in a manner he dictates to us, through photography. The project, born of the initiative of Itzchak Sakis Meir, a friend of Morel's from their university days, is a tribute to Morel and perhaps fulfillment of his yearning to teach photography and to bestow his passion to next generations. One of Morel's first exhibitions dealt with "Urban Vegetation". In this spirit, and by emphasizing one of the strong motives of Morel's work, we have chosen the subject

Urban Landscape Emphasizing The Alienation Of Our Surroundings


This is the subject that we, members of the photography forum at the Jugend Brothers Internet site, have chosen to adopt as a tribute to such a talented photographer. This gallery will gradually fill with Morel's work, and with inspiration from his creation, our works as well.

From "Urban Vegetation", 1984.
Photographer: Morel Derfler

From "Urban Vegetation", 1984.
Photographer: Morel Derfler

May 2005
Photographer: Itai Nadav

From "Urban Vegetation", 1984.
Photographer: Morel Derfler

A Child in an Alienated Urban Environment, December 2004
Photographer: Dror Yalon

An Old Woman in an Alienated Urban Environment, June 2006
Photographer: Dror Yalon

From "Urban Vegetation", 1984.
Photographer: Morel Derfler

Swiss Cityscape, September 2006
Photographer: Isaac (Sakis) Meir

"Here, but don't get any closer!", January 2006
Photographer: Nir Alon

And this is alienation;
Segregation – isolation between the two;
They meet in order to feel their foreignness.
Getting accustomed to physical nearness but distant in spirit,
To togetherness and alone, to a feeling of 'intimate strangers'.
They speak, but their words fall on the threshold of their intimacy,
They don't penetrate, they are unnecessary,
Leaving each in his own,
In his own privacy, out of the other's.
And so they speak.
And because they speak – they meet, but very much not so.
The illusion of the encounter strengthens the remoteness.
The inside of one remains outside the other's.
Alienation.

Text from "Alienation - A Poetic View" by Gabriel Raam - Ben Yehuda
http://stage.co.il/Stories/131443