Jumping off a crowded bus into some shouk in a foreign country, carrying nothing more than a Leica and two prime lenses and a gunny sack full of Kodak highspeed Black & White film has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I was drawn to the challenge of capturing the stories etched into the lines on the faces of people I met. Israel, like many countries, has seen a massive amount of recent change. Driving these changes has been the periodic influx of waves of immigrants. For those who do not assimilate fully, invariably a life of hard work for minimum pay is common. However, almost without exception, their children quickly become assimilated via obligatory military service and come to resemble western youth, typified by cell phones, new cars, and the latest fashions paraded around in air conditioned shopping malls. Indeed, modern Israel for all practical purposes looks much the same as the United States. During my stay in Israel, I spent most of my free time on the streets, and, without a car, spent most of my time walking and taking public transport. Thus, the Israel I saw and came to know and love, was primarily associated with street culture, involving both Arabs and Jews, often in neighborhoods not frequented by foreigners. My photographs thus do not portray modern Israel. My camera instead came to focus on characters I would encounter during my many walkabouts, in the Old City of Jerusalem, or on the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jaffo. These photographs therefore celebrate the denizens I came to know on the streets. My cornerstones? Henri Cartier Bresson, of course, Robert Doisneau, Roman Vishniac, Josef Koudelka, the war photographers Tim Page, Don McCullin and Phillip Jones Griffiths, and lastly Sebastiāo Salgado, the true master of the craft. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I did making them.