Long after the memories of heat and discomfort have faded, participants in the Biblical Archaeology Society six-week Israel Summer Seminar will cherish their photographic records of the summer’s experiences and adventures. Upon their return to the United States, the Israel summer seminarians submitted their photographs and slides to the Biblical Archaeology Review photo contest. These winning pictures were taken by Virgil Young of Belle Plaine, Minnesota (first prize), Barbara and Julius Maier of Buffalo, New York (second and fourth prize), and Rebecca Knudeson from Portland, Oregon (third prize).
Virgil Young’s slide of the second-century Roman Theater carved from the rose sandstone of Petra, the remote Nabataean city hidden in the mountains of southern Jordan, won him a Biblical Archaeology slide set composed of 134 beautiful photographs and a 32-page explanatory brochure. The Maiers, who took more than 1,000 photographs during the seminar, received two exquisite photographic essays: Sinai by Beno Rothenberg and Psalmist With a Camera by Gail Rubin. Ms. Knudeson, a young schoolteacher, was sent a set of BAR’s ancient oil lamp replicas for her photograph of the seminar gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai.
In the Middle East in 1867 Mark Twain kept a journal in which he recorded these thoughts: “Our experiences … have taught us that in time … all that will be left will be pleasant memories of Jerusalem, memories we shall call up with always increasing interest as the years go by, memories which someday will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds never again to return. We are satisfied. We can wait. Our reward will come. To us Jerusalem and today’s experiences will be an enchanted memory a year hence—a memory which money could not buy from us. Palestine is no more of this workday world … It is sacred to poetry and tradition—it is dreamland.”
From all accounts Twain’s sentiments are shared by those who joined the BAS Israel Summer Seminar. But they will have their pictures as well as their memories. Congratulations to the winners.
The Second Annual Israel Seminar and BAS Tour Photo Contest will be open to all 1982 participants, so take plenty of film.
Long after the memories of heat and discomfort have faded, participants in the Biblical Archaeology Society six-week Israel Summer Seminar will cherish their photographic records of the summer’s experiences and adventures. Upon their return to the United States, the Israel summer seminarians submitted their photographs and slides to the Biblical Archaeology Review photo contest. These winning pictures were taken by Virgil Young of Belle Plaine, Minnesota (first prize), Barbara and Julius Maier of Buffalo, New York (second and fourth prize), and Rebecca Knudeson from Portland, Oregon (third prize). Virgil Young’s slide of the second-century Roman Theater carved from the […]
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