The human portrait stands at the intersection of representation and storytelling. It often symbolizes a nation, a land, a state. An individual embodies a political entity and the society that forged it. It also embodies a land, a people, and a culture, echoing the tradition where a female portrait is used to symbolize a whole nation, such as Marianne (France).

In the beginning, the land was the face of Woman and her body. Her gaze expresses desire and hope. Is she looking into the future? Is she staring directly at the viewer? With the face comes a body: head, neck and chest (in the tradition of the bust), sometimes a full body. At the outset of the Six Day War, a woman is photographed against the backdrop of tank track imprints (Michaël Argov, 1967). A meeting point is created between the shape of the human body and the topography of the Israeli desert, making the human an inseparable part of the land.  By contrast, some of the portraits are oriental. From a large variety of human appearances, special importance is given to oriental clothes and mannerism, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian. Those who have been living long in the land and those who have recently come from far away are viewed as residents by both foreigners and local inhabitants: sabras and immigrants. But clothing also serves as a distinguishing mark between past and present, tradition and progress: a mother and her daughter walk side by side; the mother is heavy, clad in traditional attire, while the daughter is agile, wearing a uniform (Rothenberg, Israel Today and Yesterday, 1966). The march towards a modern society?

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A human gallery represents the country: a mosaic of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural groups, made up