Brian Hendler – an eye on the storm

Photographer Hendler’s legacy is his stunning body of work, some examples of which are presented below.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Updated: MARCH 3, 2016 11:00
A soldier comforts a survivor of a Ben-Yehuda Street bombing in 1997 (photo credit: BRIAN HENDLER)
A soldier comforts a survivor of a Ben-Yehuda Street bombing in 1997
(photo credit: BRIAN HENDLER)
When Brian Hendler was buried last Saturday night at Har Hamenuhot in Jerusalem, a cadre of Israel’s top news photographers huddled together in tribute to their colleague, their cameras for once not clicking away.
The South African-born Hendler, who died at age 63, was one of that rare breed of photographers who would go anywhere and do anything to get his picture. Hundreds of his striking photos adorned the pages of The Jerusalem Post during the 1990s and 2000s, when he covered virtually every major event in the country, from terror to aliya to politics to assassination.
He continued that level of professional tenacity later as a photographer for JTA and then for the Jewish Agency. He won first-place awards from the American Jewish Press Association for – among others – his shots of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
Hendler’s legacy is his stunning body of work, some examples of which are presented on these two pages.
Refugees from Darfur are seen inside an Israeli prison.
A makeshift memorial for slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995
As mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert checks out the water efficiency in a men’s room.
Legendary Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek in a pensive mood.
Ethiopian immigrants greet family members in 2010.
Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount in 2000.