15 years of photos capture 'flesh and blood' of Jerusalem beyond its stones

Acclaimed Israeli photographer Sharon Gabay has documented the people of Jerusalem over a period of 15 years – from 2011 to 2026 – and has encapsulated his best work in a book entitled “Jerusalemites.”

His photographs capture the many contrasts of Jerusalem – Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, old and new, light and dark – in more than a million and a half portraits. Selecting around 300 of the best images (a process he describes as far more grueling than the long journey of collecting them), Gabay has attempted to represent the extraordinary mosaic of Israel’s capital and, some would say, the capital of the world.

“The result is not a Jerusalem of stone and sanctity, but a city of flesh and blood, where ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs, nuns, merchants and children share one space. A humanist, non-judgmental gaze that tells the city's story through the faces of those who live it,” the book promises.

“My hope for the book is that people who do not know the city, and speak of it in terms of "apartheid", will learn otherwise. Jerusalem holds within it every one of the conflicts, and yet the people of the city have learned to live together. This book shows exactly that,” Gabay told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

The unique typeface he chose for the book is based on the handwriting of Aner Shapira, a young Jerusalemite who was killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. He was a musician and soldier, a son of Jerusalem.

“He stood at the entrance of a crowded roadside shelter near the Nova festival and threw back, one after another, seven grenades hurled inside – saving many lives. The eighth took his. He was 22,” said Gabay, who was plunged into trauma along with the rest of the country.

“The work on Jerusalemites saved me from the noise of the war,” he said.

While many photographs of Jerusalem highlight the stones and mortar, Gabay has deliberately chosen to document what he calls the “flesh and blood” of the living city through the eyes of one who grew up there.

Born in the iconic Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem in 1974, Gabay began taking photographs at the age of 38 and has not stopped. This is the sixth book of images he has published.

“Jerusalem is usually documented through its stones: the Western Wall, the spires, the walls. These images of the city – eternal, monumental – accompanied my previous books. This book seeks to shift the gaze from the symbols to the living fabric; from the myth to the reality,” he explained.

“It is a gaze formed by living in the city, not by visiting it. A gaze that rests on a continuous familiarity with the rhythm of the street, with slow changes and recurrences, with people who pass through and people who stay.”

As a 15th-generation Jerusalemite himself, Gabay recalls the respect many people showed towards his father, and also his grandfather, who lived in the city his whole life, and how his mother taught him to love Jerusalem despite its flaws.

Similar to the “Humans of New York” project, which transformed an iconic but abstract city into a vibrant tapestry of real people’s stories, Gabay’s book fills Jerusalem with meaning.

“Two nuns, a woman in a hijab with her children and a baby stroller, an ultra-Orthodox man – all at the same gate of the Old City, in the same moment, breathing in the smell of the same bagel,” he throws out as an example. “This is Jerusalem without makeup.”

“My hope for the city is in the words of Isaiah: 'For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,'” he added, referring to Isaiah 56:7.

Gabay’s photography has been shown internationally in solo exhibitions and official displays at the United Nations building in New York, the U.S. Congress in Washington and the Israeli Knesset. But he says he has felt the sting of antisemitism abroad.

In September, his book was selected for the Indian Photo Festival 2026, which was to be judged “blind” – on the merits of the work itself – with the name and nationality of each entrant kept hidden. When it came to light that he was Israeli, the book was summarily removed from the competition.

“The festival confirmed that it had been selected on artistic merit,” Gabay relayed. “A book that sees everyone in Jerusalem was removed because of the passport of the man who made it.”

The festival made a public statement that it “stood against genocide” and that it would “not be appropriate to proceed," after concerns had been raised, while emphasizing that the decision was not a reflection of Gabay’s work.

While he may have run into detractors abroad, “Jerusalemites” has been warmly received in Israel.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote to Gabay, "You have the ability to photograph the soul of the people, and in this book, one can see the soul of Jerusalem. It is an amazing and important book that deserves to be distributed globally."

Jerusalemites has also been praised by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

"You are an amazing photographer. This thing is stunning in its beauty," Herzog told Gabay when they met at his residence in July. He thanked him for his “immense love for Jerusalem.”

"Sharon doesn't photograph only the Western Wall, the walls and the stones, but the human fabric that gives Jerusalem its soul. Thank you, Sharon, for building a living archive of Jerusalem – not only as it looks, but as it feels," he said.

Jerusalemites (2026) is a trilingual edition (Hebrew, English and Arabic) and has been published in a limited edition of 2,000 copies. It is officially registered in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress and the National Library of Israel.