Holy Land from the Air

Nowitz's 104 magnificent, buoyant aerial photographs reveal a modern country steeped in history and religion, and luminous skies against arid and lush terrain. There are pictures of prehistoric caves near Zichron Yaakov, a wine-making village on the western slope of Mt. Carmel; of Caesarea, an ancient Roman port, later a Crusader fortress; and of the relatively neoteric city of Tel Aviv, Israel's economic and social center. In a single photo, Nowitz frames a familiar Jerusalem scene: the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock in close proximity. The fertile Hula Valley in the Galilee, a malaria-infested swamp until the 1950s and now a patchwork of brilliant greens, is depicted here as are sheep corralled in the dry, inhospitable Judean Desert. Freelance photographer Nowitz resides in Israel and journalist Elon wrote The Israelis: Founders and Sons. BOMC dividend selection.(September)