Seasons
Autumn, winter, spring and summer.
A visual lecture by Asaf Amran
Dying Beauty
The story of a landscape disappearing as it is photographed
A personal and artistic journey into the Dead Sea—from the air, from land and from within the water—where spectacular beauty meets fieldwork, science and memory.
The moment everything changed
When the camera became an instrument of record
In 2021, I returned to a salt formation I had photographed a year earlier. The waterline had receded by dozens of metres; formations that had been white and magnificent stood dry, brown and crumbling. In that moment I understood that the camera in my hands was no longer only a tool for making a beautiful image. It was recording a landscape changing and disappearing as I photographed it.
During the first phase of the project, from 2021 to 2022, I returned to the Dead Sea every week, and sometimes twice a week. I searched for the seasons, the light, the clouds and the skies; I built a body of work that approached the sea from every direction, while every return revealed that the place itself would not wait for me.
As part of the project, I created the first artistic landscape photographs made from within the waters of the Dead Sea.
The project
A journey in five dimensions
The lecture moves through five ways of seeing the Dead Sea—not simply approaching it, but entering the time, movement and material from which the landscape is made.
Light & time
Night, day, sunrise and sunset.
Image in motion
Still photography, video and time-lapse.
Viewpoint
From the air, from land and from within the water.
Macro
Entering the material from which the landscape is made.
Inside the lecture
Not only how I photographed.
Why I returned.
This is not merely a technical lecture. The photographic process is present, but it serves a larger story: planning and waiting, returning to a place that never remains as it was, and the moment when a work of art also becomes a historical record.
- How Dying Beauty began with a return to a place that had changed completely.
- Fieldwork: darkness, equipment, water and salt, planning, experiment, failure and waiting.
- The first photographs from within the Dead Sea and the challenges behind their making.
- The science behind the retreat, sinkholes and salt formations—without exaggeration.
- How the exhibition, film and book turned an ongoing body of work into one story.
- The contradiction at the heart of the project: beauty made spectacular by the very process of loss.
The contradiction at the heart of the work
Death gives birth to beauty.
The photographs are magnificent, yet their beauty is born from retreat, desiccation and collapse. Receding water reveals coves, crystals and new formations—and from the moment they appear, they too begin to die.
From the lecture
Images that cannot be made again
Some of these places have already changed or disappeared. Each photograph preserves a unique convergence of water, salt, light and time.
A journey that became a book
The project began with a return to a place that had changed.
The Dying Beauty exhibition opened at ZOA Gallery in Tel Aviv.
The film screened at the Richmond International Film Festival and received jury nominations.
Macro photography was added as a fifth dimension.
The book was completed in Hebrew and English.
Who the lecture is for
One story.
Different audiences.
The lecture is adapted to its setting and audience. It can emphasise the artistic and personal story, fieldwork and photography, the environmental and scientific context, or the process by which an idea becomes a multidisciplinary project.
Available in Hebrew and English.
Companies & organisations
Cultural programmes, inspiration sessions, employee or leadership events.
Culture & education
Museums, galleries, schools, universities and libraries.
Photography & creative practice
Photography communities, artists, creators and professional groups.
Environment & public life
Environmental bodies, public authorities, conferences and communities.
The photographer
Asaf Amran
Author · Filmmaker · Artist-photographer
One of Israel’s most highly regarded landscape photographers, known for a distinctive and original style — clean aesthetics and carefully composed frames that render a reality more striking than the eye perceives. In recent years his focus has been his flagship project, Dying Beauty.
Alongside his photography, Asaf lectures and writes on software, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, appearing before professional audiences.
Photography instructor and lecturer Advanced landscape photography workshops, theoretical lectures, and talks on the Dead Sea and the project from a photographer’s perspective.
Book the lecture
Bring the Dead Sea to your audience
Tell me about your organisation, audience and event. I will adapt the lecture to the setting and the themes that matter to you.