‘Ma’ariv’ photographer looks back on decades of work

With 22 years spent as photojournalist at 'Ma’ariv,' Aloni is one of many employees facing an uncertain future.

By BEN HARTMAN
YOSSI ALONI, a veteran ‘Ma’ariv’ photojournalist 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
YOSSI ALONI, a veteran ‘Ma’ariv’ photojournalist 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
“For me, it’s a love story, it’s like you’re insanely in love with someone then you wake up in the morning and find out she betrayed you.”
With 22 years spent as a photojournalist at Ma’ariv, Yossi Aloni is one of the veteran employees facing an uncertain future as the newspaper appears to be on the verge of closing.
Animated and with long curly grey hair, the father of five has become a prominent face in the thick of the protests held by Ma’ariv over the past few weeks. Inside the lobby of the newspaper on Thursday, Aloni cooled off in the air conditioning after marching with a few hundred fellow employees to the headquarters of Ma’ariv’s parent company, IDB, at the Azrieli Mall.
Aloni appeared the picture of a company man who spent decades working what seemed to be more of a calling than a job.
“I had offers over the years to work elsewhere but I never went for it. I can’t explain it, it’s just, [Ma’ariv] is home.”
Aloni talked about the joys of being a print journalism photographer, the feeling of holding a newspaper in his hands and seeing the pictures he took splashed across full pages.
He also waxed nostalgic for years past, when the paper budgeted the time for long form photo projects, before the manic pace of the Internet news age came in.
“When you get a good picture, not online, where its gone right away, but the next morning in the paper people are reading across the country, it is like a drug. There is no other way to describe it,” he said, shaking his head.
Over the years, Aloni photographed thousands of stories that wrote the history of the past two decades of Israel, from peace summits to wars to the days of the terror attacks during the second intifada when there “were [terror] attacks all the time and we’d hear of an attack and run out like crazy people tearing across the city.”
Aloni said the job was part of everything he did and every consideration from what type of gear to get for his motorcycle to what type of shoes to buy.
“Look, 22 years is a bit of history. I did so many things here, so many,” he added, heading off for an uncertain future.