Hally Pancer

Hally Pancer was born in 1961 in New York. She studied literature at Bennington college, completing her studies at Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Yale University (MFA). In 1988 after completing a large scale project on the United States, she moved to Israel continuing her photographic work while a professor of photography at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, WIZO College of Art and Design in Haifa and Kalisher School of Art in Tel Aviv. While in the region she completed a number of social documentary projects in an effort to influence public opinion regarding the Middle East Peace process, most notably, “The Holy Land Trilogy”. Part one (1988-1993) traveling from the north to the south of Israel for her portrait series; Some Arabs and some Jews. This work was exhibited throughout the country reaching both Arab and Jewish populations. Part two (1994-1997) The Golan, is a series of landscapes from the disputed territory in the north of Israel probing the meaning of an Israeli occupation there. Part three, Beyond Borders (1995-2001) was a landmark program uniting Israeli and Palestinian students in a framework of co-existence, using photography as a tool for social change. The fruits of this project were exhibited and implemented in various areas of conflict such as Belfast, Dublin, Belgrade, Kosovo, Jerusalem and Gaza in addition to several cities in the United States and Europe.
From 1991 through 2005, parallel to these projects, the lens turned on her family culminating in a personal documentary project; The Jewish Mother. In 2001 she moved to Paris where she was a professor of photography at Parsons Paris School of Design and currently at L’école Supérieure du l’art et Design (ESAD) in Amiens and Sciences Po in Paris.
In Europe the work shifted to a more literary tone revealed in the series Suspect and postcards from purgatory, both antecedents to the project Tall Tales, a culmination of over 40 yrs of photographs in triptychs, a visual anthology of short stories.
Her work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Musée Jeu De Paume in Paris and is included in private collections around the world.