Sarah Ayal Exhibition Catalogue

The catalogue of the exhibition “Coming out of the Shadows” (Beit Avi Chai Gallery, 2019) includes dozens of photographs by Sarah Ayal (1915-2004) who served for many decades as a photographer for the Israeli security forces. She experimented with intelligence and spy photography, guided the security services, and even invented innovative methods for secret photography. While her classified photographs are held in secret archives, her artistic works were kept in numerous boxes in the basement of her family home in Tel Aviv. These images show Ayal’s unique approach to documenting Israeli landscapes and people in the 1950s and 1960s. She captures with her camera a country that is trying to define itself and consolidate its identity. At times her gaze has an orientalist or romantic tint to it, but it is also full of light, emotion, silence, understanding of perspective and freedom of spirit.

To collect the catalogue in Jerusalem

You can pick-up the catalogue in Jerusalem:

Sunday to Thursday, 9AM to 8PM, from the lobby of Beit Avi Chai, 44 King George Street.

Shipping costs

Shipping in Israel: 28 NIS (by registered mail)

Shipping Abroad: From 124 to 346 NIS (depending on the destination).
Limited Edition, while supplies last.

For questions, you can contact us 

by phone: +972 2 621 5300 

or via email: Lobby@avichai.org.il