Hope & Love

I've met Svetlana for the first time in November 2015 at the "Death Courtyard" in a forgotten dark alley in Tel-Aviv.

I returned there time and again, not knowing who or what I would meet, life there has a different dynamic. Time passes in a different dimension, from one drug portion to the other, from day to day, from life to death.

Many of the street residents are drug addicts and engage in theft or

prostitution. They can choose a new way, but the choice is difficult and the

long-term persistence needed to succeed is even more difficult.

My relationship with Svetlana was not just around photography, we developed a personal closeness, although the camera enabled this, I was concerned with her well-being. Step by step, I help her to abandon drugs, start her new life.

Against all odds, a few years later, she found love, living a healthy and happy life, far away from that day I met her, I am so proud of her.

© Efrat Sela - Image from the Hope & Love photography project
i

Svetlana, 46-year-old Christian woman, a survivor, always on the move, she stumbled into drugs and prostitution along her path. November 2015

© Efrat Sela - Image from the Hope & Love photography project
i

The back yard. The world of prostitution, the drugs and the street are interconnected, nurture each other, and aim at addiction, when the end is well known in advance, and yet, under certain circumstances those are the conditions that permit life.

© Efrat Sela - Home
i

Home

© Efrat Sela - Cocaine
i

Cocaine

© Efrat Sela - Image from the Hope & Love photography project
i

That was the day of critical point in time, and then she made a choice - she had chosen life. She left the yard, let the church placed her in a safe house in quite country side city north of Israel that is kept by "sisters". Tel-Aviv, February 2016

© Efrat Sela - A strong community of believers, support Christian group.
i

A strong community of believers, support Christian group.

© Efrat Sela - A room of one's own, Katzrin, North Israel Sep. 2016
i

A room of one's own, Katzrin, North Israel Sep. 2016

© Efrat Sela - Image from the Hope & Love photography project
i

She is being rehabilitated and getting closer to religion, work for her living, her physical condition is good and she is very happy and proud, she saved her life.

© Efrat Sela - Soup kitchen, Tel Aviv 2017
i

Soup kitchen, Tel Aviv 2017

© Efrat Sela - Image from the Hope & Love photography project
i

More than a year from I first met her, Svetlana is completely clean from drugs, she practice her religious believes works for a living and conducts normal life away from that harsh reality she once was a part of, Haifa, August 2017

© Efrat Sela - Svetlana dresses and gets organized on her wedding day. Haifa, 12.March 2019
i

Svetlana dresses and gets organized on her wedding day. Haifa, 12.March 2019

© Efrat Sela - Alex & Svetlana
i

Alex & Svetlana

Latest Projects

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Stay in the loop


We will send you weekly news on contemporary photography. You can change your mind at any time. We will treat your data with respect. For more information please visit our privacy policy. By ticking here, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with them. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.