A photographic exhibit documenting the Ashkenazi Hassidic community takes on a unique perspective when presented by a photographer born on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

Emanuel Santos first encountered Jews at the age of 19 when he met and befriended an Israeli couple visiting his native hamlet of Segada. The friendship piqued his curiosity about matters Jewish, evolving further in a project to document the Hassidic community in Melbourne where he had settled with his Australian wife.
17 years on, that modest project has evolved into a worldwide study of Diaspora Jewry. In 1994, Santos was invited to Jerusalem for his first visit to Israel, to join in the international photographic project that would give rise to the book "A Day in the Life of Israel".

Human universality is the central theme and inspiration of Santos' quest. In the past 20 years, he has been involved in his own projects, observing tribes, rituals and cultures worldwide - in the Philippines, Australian aborigines, Vietnam, China and the Jewish communities. He recently returned from an expedition to South America where he documented Spanish converts living with Indians in the Amazon region.

In the course of his quest, Santos stumbled upon an amazing personal discovery that brought Jewish themes far closer than he could have imagined. Attending the Lag Be'Omer ceremony at Meron, he saw participants tossing various articles into the flames to symbolize their detachment from evil experiences. The sight reminded him of a similar rite celebrated in his Philippine village home. He soon discovered that Jews first reached the islands in the 16th century, in flight from the Spanish Inquisition. Santos recalled his father reading the Bible, exclusively the Old Testament. His grandmother was the village healer, employing spells Santos later identified as stemming from the Kabala. She never ate or served pork, and invariably marked the Passover festive with a family repast of fish, prayers and legends. Santos concludes that his photographs of Jewish communities unconsciously serve his need "to confirm who I am, and where I come from." Motivated by this powerful personal involvement, Santos seeks to enshrine cultural universality by way of Jewish tradition. His works offer sensitive documentation of the well-ordered masculine world of the Orthodox male.

The exhibit, presenting works photographed worldwide, offers a tribute to Jewish tradition, particularly the vanished communities of Eastern European Jews.

The exhibit falls into four sections corresponding to the divisions of Jewish tradition: impregnation; creation; physical action; and flowing, interpreted by Santos as: night, dawn, day and dusk.

The current exhibition has been on display at the Jewish Museum in Melbourne and in Brazil.
It is due to go on show in Buenos Aires, New York, Berlin, Geneva and Paris.

Emmanuel Santos

Education:
1957 - Born in the Philippines
1979-1981 - Photographer - United Nations - High Commission for Refugees
1982 - Immigrated to Australia
1983 - to present Freelance Photographer

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 - Corroboree-Danses sacrees, Museum of Art, Brussels, Belgium
2000 - Centenary of Federation :Migration Exhibition Immigration Museum, Melbourne
Salle Jean Despas, Place des Lices- Saint Tropez
Corroboree- Danses sacres, Theatre de la Licorne - Festival Cinma desAntipodes,Canne
Gnse Aborigne Alliance Franaise de Melbourne - St Kilda -
1999 - Corroboree - Danses sacres - Salle Jean Despas, Place des Lices - Saint Tropez
Apocrypha - Jews of Ukraine, Jewish Museum of Australia
Diaphanous, Span Gallery Melbourne
1998-1999 - The Holocaust and the Genocide of East Timor
International exhibition that travelled in 16 countries around the world
1998 - The lost Tribes of Israel, Museum of Arts , Chernivtsy, Ukraine
Retrospective - 24 years of photography, Footscray Art Centre - Australia
1997-1998 - The Migrant experience - travelling exhibition
Victorian State Museum - Australia
1995 - You! The Audience - Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne - AustraliaEthnographs - Gallery Momoki, Tokyo - Japan

Selected Group Exhibitions
1999 - 7 migrant artists ,Festival of Arts - Singapore
1996-1997 - Visions - A multi-cultural Exploration of Malaysia and Australia
1996 - Mother Jones Exhibition -3 Artists,Fitzroy Town Hall - Australia
1995 - China, Cuba !, World Trade Centre - Australia

Selected books and publications
- A Day in the life of Israel, San Francisco, U.S.A.
- A Day in the life of Thailand, San Francisco, U.S.A.
- KUDJELA - Aboriginal poetries with photographs
- The year of Tolerance - UNESCO
- Arts and Remembrance - Arts of the Holocaust
- The Mission - Christianization of the Tribal Worlds

Selected Works in Permanent Collections
Museum of Arts - Chernivtsy - Ukraine, Muse' d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme, Paris, France, Australian Jewish Museum -,Australia, Diaspora Museum -Israel, State Museum of Victoria -Australia, National Library of Australia ,National Gallery of Victoria - Australia, Tianjin Youth Palace - China, Mother Jones Foundation - U.S.A., U.N.H.C.R. Archives - Switzerland, Victorian Arts Centre - Australia, National Art Gallery - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia, Momoki Archives - Tokyo - Japan, Bibliothque nationale de France - Dpartement des Estampes et de la photographie - Paris.

Awards and Citations
2001 - Judge and selection panel
2000 - Recipient of The Philippine Presidential millenium awards for the Arts in recognition to the artist's involvement in promoting the course of Humanity through the arts.
Awarded at the Malacanang Palace of the Republic of the Philippines,Manila
The Leica/Center for Contemporary Photography Exhibition Award and Exhibition
1997 - Judge and selection panel