I'm a very keen amateur photographer (although you would probably never guess it from the quality of my own photographs), and I really enjoy looking at the work of professional photographers. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I often surf photoblogs. I was recently doing this when I came across a site by Rachel Papo.
Her photos are of "girls with guns", but there is no titilation here. Although she was born in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 18 Rachel served in the Israeli Airforce as a photographer.
3817131 was Rachel's serial number during her service, and I think Rachel's own words are the best way to express her feelings about the experience.
The life of an eighteen-year-old girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism. “I solemnly swear…to devote all of my strength and to sacrifice my life to protect the land and the liberty of Israel,” repeats the newly recruited soldier during her swearing-in ceremony. She enters the two-year period in which she will change from a girl to a woman, a teenager to an adult, all under a militaristic, masculine environment, and in the confines of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict.
The photos are very intense and thought provoking and your thoughts go out to these girls who look so out of place when I think of girls their age in the UK.
Rachel is currently working on a book of images from this series, but in the mean time I would recommend you take a look at the site and see what emotions it stirs in you.
