Guy Gilad- Biography of a photography-artist

                                                 1977-2021

On a summer day in 1977 Guy Gilad was born in Kibbutz Nir-Am, whose fields stretched to the horizon, bathed in the light of the blue sky in the northern Negev; grandson of visionaries and land workers who came from Eastern Europe, son of his kibbutz raised parents. Kibbutz living in the Land of Israel was a newly created universe in which Guy was blessed to celebrate the start of his life.

    Guy was a curious child, with his childish eyes shining always with wonder, "devouring" the sights of nature especially during his years with his family in Switzerland. The world "called" him with countless questions that he asked about every aspect of life, in language rich in images.

   As a teenager he was a combination of a "good boy", but stubborn and a "polite" rebel. He developed into someone who observed and built insights from an inner honesty that set its own priorities. He didn’t live according to patterns, according to "what everyone else is doing or saying", not according to built-in expectations created by the surrounding society. He understood that, at least for him, school is not the only place to learn life. The house where he grew up was a house of literature and creativity, trips, and a joy of life celebrated with his elder sister and younger brother. This is how the foundation of the temple of his life was formed and further developed always true to his heart and soul. Guy’s inner temple was built floor by floor through his life with more and more lights appearing in the windows, and these lights kept growing - so much beauty, and goodness, and joy of life, unstoppable vitality, and bursting creativity - all developed with hard and patient work full of energy and optimism.

   After a long and demanding army service in submarines, he went on a long, multi-adventure trip, with a great desire to experience life in all its intensity in South America. He returned with impressive photographs and realized that his professional and significant path would be in the world of photography. Guy turned observation into a profession, observing a person, the world, and other works of art. He found his vocation - to be a creative person.

   For three years he studied photography at Hadassah College in Jerusalem and even then he was defined as a trailblazer and someone who was ahead of his time.

   Guy had a touch of gold with people - always loved and loving. He 'saw' others and brightened their face. People were for him an inexhaustible source of interest, reference and a challenge to touch their inner world. This personality contributed to his photography in his ability to create a human interaction with his co-workers and the models, as he sought to penetrate into their hidden world and shape an external appearance of it.

    Guy exalted in the vitality of life, the earthly and the spiritual, the performative work and the world of artistic creation, being a man of people and at the same time very authentic and unique, profound and smart while at the same time funny, entertaining and a humorous person. All these traits are mined in his art.

    All this did not fade in the days of severe illness when Guy held on to life every possible moment of every day with vitality and sober observation until the last photo where Guy photographed himself as someone whose soul was between the two worlds and thus wrote: 'Fill the Sunshine'.  He passed away at the age of 44 leaving behind a wife, two sons, parents, a sister and a brother.

Losing Guy is a great loss, but he will continue to be a tremendous inspiration to many people.

His huge stock of photographs is still waiting to be discovered.