Israeli photographer Ilan Shacham wins top award for untouched photo of Dead Sea salt pearls
Israeli photographer Ilan Shacham has won a top prize in the Natural Landscape Photography Awards for his stunning photo taken at the Dead Sea. His picture of salt pearls resting on a rippled shore was achieved without the use of AI or Photoshop and won first prize in the “Abstract Landscape” category.
“The Dead Sea is one of my favorite areas to photograph,” the self-taught artist told Ynet News. “I am always amazed by the variety of salt formations, which create an impressive range of shapes and textures. It is particularly rich material for anyone seeking to express the world in an abstract way, like a painting of nature.”
The National Landscape Photography Awards is known for preferring authentic photographs that have not been digitally manipulated, and only accepts minimal editing in entries for the prestigious competition.
Shacham continued: “The photo was taken on a winter morning on an anonymous beach in the northern Dead Sea. After a long walk across difficult terrain, I reached the shoreline. The beach itself was made up of hardened salt surfaces, with an almost random lattice of ridges – raised salt lines protruding above the rest."
“In one area," he continued, "I discovered ‘salt pearls’ that had rolled between the ridges. In the early morning light, the low sun illuminated the ridges from within with golden light, creating a magnificent texture of spheres within glowing lines. I hurried to frame a portion of this natural creation in a way that would draw the viewer in and best convey the feeling of standing before this wonder.”
Shacham has won many other prizes in the past for his excellent work and has been featured in National Geographic and the Smithsonian, along with books like the Lonely Planet guides and many magazines and newspapers. Yet, he has never been formally trained and actually came across the discipline almost by accident.
According to Ynet, Shacham, from Modi’in in the center of Israel, was writing a column for biking magazine “Ofanayim” and needed photographs to accompany his article. He bought a basic camera and discovered that he not only liked taking pictures, but that they were coming out really well. He refined his talent by exploring online resources, experimentation and practice.
Shacham recounted how he captured his iconic photograph of a fisherman at Palmahim Beach, which won a prize in the 2011 National Geographic Traveler World Photography Competition.
“I went out one winter Friday afternoon to photograph at Palmahim beach, with two of my children,” he said. “We stepped onto a rocky platform slightly higher than sea level, where seawater poured in with the waves, and approached the spot where the rock shelf drops off into the sea. The sea was a little rough, so I left my kids a few meters behind me and stood at the edge to photograph the shelf and the waterfalls created by the receding waves. A six-second exposure beautifully blurred the water and emphasized the small falls tumbling back into the sea. I felt I was just warming up, and that soon the light of sunset would reach its peak, but then a huge wave swept over me and the kids."
With it being winter in Israel, he explained that, as a responsible father, he needed to postpone the shoot to help his children dry off and take them home. Although frustrated that he “hadn’t managed to capture the scene at its most beautiful,” Shacham later discovered, once home, that he had actually taken a good photo – good enough, he said, “for National Geographic.”
“After the competition results were published, a French woman contacted me saying she and her fiancé wanted to come to this beach for their honeymoon, and she asked me for directions. How could I explain to her that it doesn’t look like that every day – or at every hour – and certainly not without a long camera exposure?”
Similarly, another award-winning photograph he took, entitled "Moon Over Hod Akev," was also the result of his considerable skill and patience.
“Taking this photo required meticulous planning,” he explained. “Timing-wise, it had to be on the evening when the full moon rose just before sunset, so that the setting sun on the opposite horizon would bathe the mountains in a delicate reddish hue. Location-wise, I wanted the moon to rise just to the left of Hod Akev’s peak to balance the image. I scouted the area near Sde Boker ahead of time to find the exact spot I would need to reach at the critical moment to capture the moon exactly where I wanted it in the frame.”
The picture, a tribute to Ansel Adams’ iconic "Moonrise, Hernandez," was exhibited at the Eretz Israel Museum.
Shacham’s work has been exhibited all over Israel, including in the airport’s main concourse. He has also been featured in exhibitions in countries all over the world, including at the “Nature’s Best Photography” exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum in the U.S.
Jo Elizabeth has a great interest in politics and cultural developments, studying Social Policy for her first degree and gaining a Masters in Jewish Philosophy from Haifa University, but she loves to write about the Bible and its primary subject, the God of Israel. As a writer, Jo spends her time between the UK and Jerusalem, Israel.
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