In a Desert Land: Photographs of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan

by Neil Folberg

These places are among the most beautiful on earth — the deserts of the Middle East, the Dead Sea coast, the ancient splendor of Luxor, the pyramids at Giza, and the eternal presence of Jerusalem itself — and their beauty all the more intense because of their rich historical and religious association. Breathtaking folio-sized reproductions of large-format photographs capture sacred vistas, images of awe, serenity, and ravishing beauty: the Oasis of Ain Umm-Ahmed, the view from the summit of Mount Sinai, a Bedouin orchard in the midst of a desert wadi, the dusty life of village and town, the Temple Mount, and the Wailing Wall.
Accompanying these photographs are Neil Folberg's delightful firsthand narratives recounting the humorous and harrowing adventures of a photographer in a politically troubled and naturally formidable land. While Folberg entreats only that you follow him into the landscape of his vision and derive pleasure wandering and wondering, the photographs of In a Desert Land — celebrations of beauty sacred and natural — are in fact moving prayers and persuasive arguments for sanity and peace in a reckless region and a volatile world.

Genres: Photography

204 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1987

Reviews

[sweet orange books · Rating 3 out of 5]

"No place on earth can compete with Sinai."

A very pleasant book consecrated to Neil Folberg's photographs from the 70's and 80's in Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Very extensive description of his travels, in the form of a journal, accompanies 110 colored photographs. Many are printed on a double panel. The photographs are not equal in terms of quality, but the collection is still worth exploring.

"The challenge of landscape photography is to reduce a limitless expanse to the confines of a two-dimensional rectangle without creating a feeling of confinement within borders. It is necessary to give enough information about the environment so that the imagination can extrapole beyond the edges of the photograph, to envision what might be beyond the next ridge, to create a mood evocative enough to make the viewer want to wander in their mind through that image."

"The beauty of the desert lies less in its small delights - a wildflower, a pool of water - than in the delight of finding these things in the midst of dryness."

My favorites:

Egypt

Felucca, Nile at Luxor:


Pyramids, Giza:


Mawhub, Western Desert:


Street scene, village of Qurna:


Village of Qurna:


Farafra, Western Desert:


Crocodile charm, Island of Sehel, near Aswan:


Feluccas, first cataract of the Nile:


Western Desert and Elephantine Island:


Sinai

Canyon of Colors, Sinai:


Olive tree in Wadi Talab:


Pool and rock, Wadi Talah:


Sandstone, Wadi Arada HaKatan:


Hamadat El-Loz:


Great Dune and Clouds, Bikat Baraka:


Sandstorm, Bikat Baraka:


Red Sea coast at Ras Abu-Galum:


Acacia and black dike, Wadi Ara'im:


Jordan

View to the north from Wadi Burdah, in the area of Wadi Rum:


Jebel Ed-Deir and Wadi Musa:


Shobak Castle:


Israel

Poppies and almond blossoms, Judean hills:


Train, Nahal Refaim:


Monastery of St. George, Wadi Kelt:


Ain Kelt:


Village of Carmel:


Road below Har Sodom:


Salt flats, Dead Sea:


Western Wall and Temple Mount:


Mamilla Street: