Peace Building

Strong harmonious societies that support creative expression are able to develop new approaches to tackling the world’s problems. As a society, our great challenge is to provide each person with the freedom to create and the opportunity to participate as the builders and caretakers of peace and prosperity.

Freedom to Create uses creativity to bridge the chasms of social, racial, gender and economic divides in new and innovative ways. We believe peaceful societies are creative and prosperous societies.

Freedom to Create presents ‘Frames of Reality’, a unique peace building endeavor in collaboration with the Peres Center for Peace, which caters to professional photojournalists from countries in conflict and uses creative arts to build bridges, foster peace and create harmony. Participating photographers are usually from reputed news agencies who record the impact of conflict on people on both sides of warring nations. Their images remind people on both sides of the similarity of the tragic consequences of conflict.

Through the annual program, photojournalists partake in 10-12 workshops led by professional lecturers from both sides, which focus on theoretical and practical aspects of photojournalism including topics such as photography and social change, documentary photography, new media, and more.

Upon conclusion of these sessions, exhibitions that are open to the public are held in the region and abroad and therefore have the invaluable potential to reach thousands of people from both sides. The exhibitions include photographs taken throughout the program and are accompanied by a catalog, for international distribution.

The ‘Frames of Reality’ program currently runs workshops to enhance the professional skills of the photographers in Israel and Palestine. The project encourages the formation of both personal and professional ties between photojournalists, and provides participants with an opportunity to present a reality which is not usually depicted in conventional news sources – that of Palestinian-Israeli dialogue and cooperation.

‘Frames of Reality’ was presented at The Freedom to Create Exhibition in tandem with the 17th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, at the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 2011.