In recent months, almost every farmer living close to the Gaza border who returned to work has encountered Marina Forman-Levy. The talented 46-year-old agricultural photographer, garnering thousands of followers on Instagram, has been documenting the resurgence of local agriculture after the October 7 attack and throughout the war.
"When I stand in the fields of the Gaza border region and take pictures, I always ask myself the same question: how did the government abandon such a beautiful place?" she says.
Marina, who lives in Nahalal in the Jezreel Valley, is married and a mother of three children. "My eldest daughter serves in the IDF at the Gaza District Coordination and Liaison base, where Hamas terrorists infiltrated, kidnapped and killed soldiers," she recounts. "By chance, she came home the night before. I was gifted with my daughter."
When the Gaza war began, Forman-Levy volunteered in agriculture in Gaza border towns. "I came to help the farmers with harvesting and other tasks, and brought my camera," she recalls. "I started taking pictures — and haven't stopped. There's no field on the Gaza border I haven't photographed. So many pictures. That's how I got to know more and more farmers.
“Even after I finished volunteering, I kept coming to take photos near the border. I took pictures of the agricultural machinery in Kibbutz Nahal Oz or Kfar Aza, in the fields near the border, and also in Kibbutz Nir Oz. It's sometimes hard for me to capture this pastoral scene, knowing a horrific massacre took place here just a few months prior. There are still places in the fields where bloodstains remain."
Even now, she continues to roam the border region, photographing agriculture: tractors, crops and irrigation systems. Among other things, she photographed the agricultural landscape seen from the kitchen of late Roy Edan's home in Kfar Aza, a Ynet photographer who was murdered in the invasion of the kibbutz along with his wife, Smadar.
Marina was born in the town of Mazyr, Belarus. In 1990, when she was just 11 years old, she made Aliyah alone. Her parents arrived a few months later, and the family settled in Ashdod.
In 1997, she enlisted in the IDF, where she met her husband, Matan. In 2002, they moved to Nahalal. "For me, agricultural photography is a longing for my childhood," she explains. "It all starts there. My entire childhood is made up of agricultural landscapes."
So, which is more beautiful — the agriculture of the Jezreel Valley or the Gaza border?
"That's the hardest question for me. When I photograph the valley, it's much smaller, but it's my home, mine and my children’s landscape. But the vast expanses in the Gaza border free the soul. How did we not protect this place on October 7? How did we let this happen? That's what I keep asking myself."
Weren't you afraid at any point? Rockets are still falling here.
"I'm willing to do anything for agricultural photography."