When Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa mosque in September 2000, there began at once a cycle of violence that has yet to be resolved. Ilkka Uimonen was there to witness the events.
As the vehemence escalated he sought out flashpoints on both sides, Palestinian and Israeli. His photographs in Cycles do not follow the chronology of the events; they are very much his own narrative of his experiences. His sequence of 61 photographs of the combatants, and the innocents, is presented without an introduction. The violence and defining sentiments require none. His images fill the page, all of them full bleed, and provide a mesmeric testimony to the aggression, despair and pride that exist without boundaries in Palestine.
Cycles has been edited and bound with Ilkka Uimonen's stark realism in mind. There are no frills to this volume that weighs heavy in the hand.
