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magidI won a copy of Hinenu (David Shlachter) from LibraryThing, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I had a bunch of library books out so it sat for a bit, until I got an email from Lehrhaus that the author was going to give a talk tonight. That got me to read it Friday night so I could be prepared for the talk.
This is a gorgeous, full-color book using profiles of 100 Israelis as representatives of the entire population of the recently achieved 10 million. He uses a variety of demographic axes: age, gender, religion, native/immigrant (including region of origin)/non-citizen resident, and region lived in. The design is beautiful, with a full-page spread for each person, approximately one page of text facing a full-page photo, plus a smaller second photo. Under the big photo there’s the demographic information, which is also color coded. The photos are incredible. I found the choices of which colors to use for which age ranges led to some photo captions in those colors that were quite difficult to read (lacking enough contrast). I appreciate the thought that went into the design; it would work better for me with just a few different particular color choices.
The profiles are organized in decade order (and oldest to youngest within the decade), oldest first. I hadn’t realized until reading this just how young Israel skews: 18 profiles were of people aged 0-9, and another 17 were aged 10-19. So a third of the population is under 20. I understood why there were so many younger profiles, though that meant a number of the later (younger) ones were from a parent’s perspective, which I found inherently less interesting than the ones in first person.
Because it mirrors the population, I got a better sense for how the country’s demographics are in general; I know my experiences there have definitely been skewed/siloed, so this helped me.
I appreciated the author’s notes on the project at the end (and agree that there were a few too many surfers!).
At the talk tonight, I heard more about how the author came up with this idea and found people to fit the needed profiles, as well as how it’s changed him. He also talked about some of the challenges (some people would’ve liked to have participated, but feared retaliation from their community, for instance). There was a short 9-min video about the book, including some of the people profiled; it was great to hear their actual voices. He’s an engaging presenter, very curious about people, so I was glad I went (plus I got my book signed).
This is a gorgeous, full-color book using profiles of 100 Israelis as representatives of the entire population of the recently achieved 10 million. He uses a variety of demographic axes: age, gender, religion, native/immigrant (including region of origin)/non-citizen resident, and region lived in. The design is beautiful, with a full-page spread for each person, approximately one page of text facing a full-page photo, plus a smaller second photo. Under the big photo there’s the demographic information, which is also color coded. The photos are incredible. I found the choices of which colors to use for which age ranges led to some photo captions in those colors that were quite difficult to read (lacking enough contrast). I appreciate the thought that went into the design; it would work better for me with just a few different particular color choices.
The profiles are organized in decade order (and oldest to youngest within the decade), oldest first. I hadn’t realized until reading this just how young Israel skews: 18 profiles were of people aged 0-9, and another 17 were aged 10-19. So a third of the population is under 20. I understood why there were so many younger profiles, though that meant a number of the later (younger) ones were from a parent’s perspective, which I found inherently less interesting than the ones in first person.
Because it mirrors the population, I got a better sense for how the country’s demographics are in general; I know my experiences there have definitely been skewed/siloed, so this helped me.
I appreciated the author’s notes on the project at the end (and agree that there were a few too many surfers!).
At the talk tonight, I heard more about how the author came up with this idea and found people to fit the needed profiles, as well as how it’s changed him. He also talked about some of the challenges (some people would’ve liked to have participated, but feared retaliation from their community, for instance). There was a short 9-min video about the book, including some of the people profiled; it was great to hear their actual voices. He’s an engaging presenter, very curious about people, so I was glad I went (plus I got my book signed).