Negev Desert, Makhtesh Ramon, Sunrise, 2012. Photo by Neil Folberg

Negev Desert, Makhtesh Ramon, Sunrise, 2012. Photo by Neil Folberg

The desert, like the sea and the mountains, is a planetary fact that is never fully understandable: it is too enormous, too varied, too ominous, and too beautiful. Each acre of the Negev Desert is unique, and as a landscape the whole is in a constant state of change. Photographer Neil Folberg captures the stunning incongruity of the desert with images like lush grapes, dangling heavy with sugar, against the backdrop of sand at the Negev’s Rota Winery.   

For the people of Israel, the desert is both a home and a crucial challenge. In order to survive here, this magnificent but unyielding terrain must be engaged and made into a living and fertile land.

The five photos below are accompanied by twenty more with the purchase of The Desert and the Cities Sing: Discovering Today’s Israel.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NEIL FOLBERG CAPTURING ISRAEL'S LANDSCAPE