At age 12, Ayala Gazit learned she had an older brother in Australia. Her yearning to one day meet him would end in tragedy as ultimately he committed suicide. Eventually Ayala did travel to Australia to connect with her brother’s family and his enduring memory, “following the traces and echoes of one’s existence after his passing”. Through family snapshots, letters and quotes from conversations interspersed with her own dreamlike images evoking isolation, fragmentation and loss, Ayala Gazit creates a portrait of the memory of the brother she never met.
Born in Israel, at 18 years old, Gazit was drafted into the Israeli Army, where she served for two years as a military photographer in a highly classified unit. Gazit moved to New York in 2005, to complete a BFA in photography at The School of Visual Arts. Gazit graduated with Honors in May 2009, and was the single stu- dent chosen for the Tierney Fellowship. Thanks to the Fellowship's support Gazit managed?to begin the project she has been wishing to embark on for over a decade - Was it A Dream. The exhibition was presented at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale in 2013.
