Galai at UCLAYoav Galai, 26, is a Jerusalem-based freelance photographer. Last year during the Second Lebanon War, he was the only photographer embedded with the IDF. Until Dec. 14th, Hillel at UCLA, in conjunction with The Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts, Bruins for Israel, Altmedia Films and friggin Adobe no less present Under Fire in Lebanon, the only exhibition of Galai’s photos in the US.

None of the images are captioned and it was Galai’s intent that the actual narrative take second place to the more universal imagery that conveys very clearly the notion that war is indeed hell.

“The next time people see war, whether it’s Israel, Iraq or Afghanistan, I want them to know this is what war looks like, everyone in green, the blood is red,” [Galai] said… Photographing the soldiers in such vulnerable moments – such as when one badly wounded soldier was slipping in and out of consciousness – felt like an intrusion, Galai said, but he felt it was his obligation to record the events honestly… Ultimately, Galai said he and the soldiers were glad he took the photos because it allowed the soldiers’ families to begin to understand what their loved ones had been through and how the experience had affected them… “Even the most difficult pictures they were glad to have,” he said… “Any conflict situation, you should know it’s serious,”…

The exhibition takes place at the UCLA building at 574 Hilgard Ave. in Los Angeles and is open every day from 9 am to 9 pm when the building is open. Call 310.208.3081 for more info.

Awesome programing there UCLA Hillel staff. Really. Take a bow.

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Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.