Eli Katzoff Photographer Captures ......

may not be einiyim friendly, at your own risk

I was busy dodging rockets......

But that didn’t stop me from making a ton of content during this 12 day war. 

I just simply didn’t send it out to this list and for that I do apologize. 

But better late then never!

After the first Iranian barrage of roughly 100 ballistic missiles it became clear this was going a daily or even hourly occurrence. And yet, I started to notice people going to the beach. I was curious who would venture out to the sun soaked sand while the threat of raining ballistic missiles hung over all our heads. I was surprised by the answers.

Only a few days later, a group of missiles hit the surrounding area. One hit close to my apartment. After checking for my own safety, I ran out with the camera to try and capture the scene and the people that had crowded the area.

A few days into the war spending overnights in shelters had become the norm. But the larger public shelters in and around Tel Aviv had fallen into disrepair and after being used by an unknown number people as a makeshift public restroom substitute, it’s just not appealing to sleep overnight in them. (For example, the first shelter I found safety in also was sheltering a local scorpion population.) But with so many buildings not having any shelter, people began to think creatively. Barely used, brand new Subway stations become huge communal shelters. And Brothers and Sisters of Israel (best known for the modern protest movements in Israel) started supplying tents to underground parking facilities. I found the communities that formed in these underground dwellings to be fascinating. The falling Iranian rockets had effectively forced thousands to co-mingle in these places for long periods of time, no matter their backgrounds. A melting pot of culture and people under the threat of war.

To really understand the impact that a single Iranian ballistic missile can cause when it strikes an area, I managed to capture a very unique perspective. I flew a drone through the destroyed husks of what was left of buildings hit in Tel Aviv. I want to emphasize that while most drone photography is about flying over and near landscapes, this was the concept of flying it through the insides of the apartments ripped apart by the blast. To do this I used the same search and rescue drone that the paramedics and first responders are using to find survivors when a rocket strikes. The final video is a haunting reminder of what kind of damage these shockwaves cause. And I want to emphasize that the above video is the aftermath of a single ballistic missile.

Oh! But I almost forgot! A little humble brag. I also just recently won first place in one of the categories of the Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. This is the annual AJPA award ceremony and in the Jewish Journalism world, it's kind of a big deal. If you are into that kind of thing.   Anyway, it's category 35: The Marc Klein Award for Excellence for Best Use of Interactive Media. This is the only true "video" category in the awards and well, I took home first place for a video about bomb shelters. I actually like this video a lot as it features some friends along with some amazing experts. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/tFxsqazA9EY?si=ZTdG6zL94uKZByVo or check the video below.

Also, if you missed my last videos [see Part II]