TEL AVIV BEACHES - A Photographic Journey Along The Tel Aviv - Jaffa Coastline

It is hard to imagine Tel Aviv-Jaffa without its coastline. 13 official beaches stretching across 14 kilometers of sand and sea, lifeguard stations, parasols, matkot, popsicles, watermelons with feta cheese, waves, sunsets, and a long promenade connecting them all. Yet this coastline was never part of the city's founders' original vision. They saw the sea as a nuisance, and it was no coincidence that it was said: "Tel Aviv was founded with its back to the sea".

In the 1920s, the national poet Chaim Nachman Bialik convinced the city's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, that the seashore could be a place of leisure. In 1924, the city's first official beach opened at the end of Allenby Street, known today as Jerusalem Beach, and cafés and hotels soon sprang up around it. By the 1930s, three more beaches had opened, and the first stretch of promenade had been built. Nearly a hundred years later, the promenade runs the length of the city, and the sea has become one of the main draws for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

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As a resident of the city, I found myself returning to its beaches again and again. Sometimes alone, sometimes with others, always with a camera. Each hour of the day and each season brought a different light, a different color, a different story. Through the lens, I discovered how the beaches bring people together, while at the same time, inviting you to leave the everyday behind and breathe deeply before the endless open sea. Tel Aviv Beaches brings together more than 100 photographs I took over the past decade, inviting you on a visual journey from Givat Aliya Beach in southern Jaffa to HaTzuk Beaches of northern Tel Aviv. Move through it from north to south, south to north, or jump straight to your favorite beach and discover it anew. Wander through the pages and see the coastline through different eyes.

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Yours,

Ido

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