Andrea Meislin Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Rina Castelnuovo. Although Castelnuovo considers her work photojournalism, her moving images have captured the daily life of Israeli people in a way that few other photographers – fine art or otherwise – have.

Castelnuovo was recently awarded First Place, International News Picture Story in the Best of Photojournalism 2010. She has been photographing for the New York Times in Israel since the mid-nineties, as well as for Time Magazine, Stern Magazine, and the Associated Press since the eighties. Her work presents a look into the complex forces that drive the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The award-winning series focuses on the West Bank settlements and outposts, which Israel has promised to dismantle as part of its commitment to a two-state solution. In the image above, a Jewish settler prays at sunrise from the top of Mt Gerizim where an outpost once stood and was evicted, overlooking the Palestinian city of Nablus and the surrounding “Hills Of Fire” dotted with Jewish settlements. Settlers are holding a permanent presence here despite the eviction as according to their belief that no authority is allowed to relinquish “any portion of the land.”

Castelnuovo captures this and many other moments up through the present day in her exhibition at Andrea Meislin Gallery. Some are dramatic and moving, while others are everyday scenes of the families and people inhabiting this land. Castelnuovo’s striking ability to capture both the extraordinary and the habitual puts her in a class of her own. Rina Castelnuovo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and is the recipient of many prestigious prizes for her photography.