Several days after October 7, Laufer drove south, intending to create a documentary project. Stopping at the roadside, she noticed animal tracks and droppings. Like a scout, she followed them, her footsteps echoing the sounds of bombardments. The way led her to Ruhama Badlands, a nature reserve situated at the highest point in the area overlooking Gaza, and there she hid a security camera. Every couple of weeks, she returned to collect the tapes.
Among the thousands of seconds recorded, Laufer found a single second, a “decisive moment” – one frame capturing a fox, with its face to the camera, its eyes shining white )from the infrared reflection(. In the background, on the pitch-black horizon, a flash of white light, whose rays disappear into the clouds above, the imprint of a bomb dropped in Gaza.
This photograph most likely has a “twin” in the form of a photo of that same bombing from the airplane, an overview from up high, proof of “mission accomplished,” an imprint of success. Laufer suggests another, more complex, viewpoint: her photograph unites the big drama of the war for life or death with another fight for survival, that of the fox, in its everyday existence in a deserted and dangerous nature reserve.
written by: Mira Lapidot
