How important is it for us, as viewers, to be familiar with the biographical background of an artist, any artist?

No one knows when the human mind first developed the conviction that besides him, there is a power of a different nature operating on our planet.

Wherever he might be in the world, London or Beijing, Haifa or New York, Budapest or Cape Town, a Jew, when he wants to go to the City, will say: I’m going up to Jerusalem. I ask you to follow his example. Let’s open this impressive book and walk slowly up to Ivan Benda’s Jerusalem, which seems close to us on the pages, yet is as far as the sky

Ivan Benda keeps returning to Israelin order to photograph the people, Jews, Christians and Muslims depicted in his book. He has been to Greeceand is now going back to Italyto find Hungarian memories. I do not exactly know what drives him on or what he is looking for but fortunately he is not one of those photographers who subordinate their work to preconceptions. He visits a place he finds interesting and has his camera at hand just in case.