Category: Featured

The Magic of ‘Kol Hamusica’

Mozes Victor Konig has been using this summer to catch up on some local culture. 

“I find that the summer in Israel is a perfect opportunity to check out how the country is developing culturally.  We’ve come a long way in such a short time and it’s amazing to be witness to this growing entertainment scene,” Konig explained.

As such he plans to visit the Upper Galilee’s Kol Hamusica Festival that began yesterday and continues until July 16.  Not a new event (now in its 35th year), it is a great opportunity for music lovers to get in touch with the music scene.  This year violin player Guy Braunstein, piano player Ohad Ben-Ari and others are making an appearance.

“Of course, being a photographer I love finding entertainment-rich events to shoot. But I am hoping for my other senses to enjoy it; listening to musicians of such a high caliber is a true gift,” Mozes Victor Konig added. 

Tickets for the event can be purchased online.

Eurovision 2019: Photographic Opportunities

Israel recently hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.   Now in its 64thyear, Israel has been a participant for 43 years. However, 2019 was only the 3rd time it played host even though it has won on four different occasions: 1979, 1980, 1998 and 2018.  

Eurovision song contests bring fantastic photographic opportunities. According to local Tel Aviv photographer Mozes Victor Konig:

“If you think about it, there’s really something quite special about being able to capture this event visually.  There’s such a buzz around it on so many levels.  I’ve been photographing performances for years, but being in the center of Israel, at the center of the highest form of European entertainment just has a completely different feeling.  I was so grateful to be a part of it.”

There was so much variety at this year’s contest that took place near southern Tel Aviv’s Park Yarkon. Aside from the actual songs, the performances were spectacular and it was an extremely visual event.  From Australia’s Statute of Liberty lookalike to the winning ‘Arcade,’ from The Netherlands, the buzz in the air made it a completely phenomenal experience that simply had to be captured by photographers such as Konig for many years in the future.

Celebrating Raymond Loewy

google-doodleIf he would still be alive, industrial engineer Raymond Loewy would have celebrated his 120th birthday yesterday. Known as the “father of industrial design,” Google had one of his engines as their doodle yesterday.

Born in France (but not all that well-known there for his genius) in 1938, Loewy became a naturalized American citizen.  Thereafter he worked in America for the majority of his life and passed away in Monaco on July 14, 1986.

Loewy became famous from the products he designed for companies including New Man, Spar, Shell, Greyhound Bus and even the Coca-Cola bottle.  He was recognized throughout the world is a top designer and was even publicized in the front page of Time magazine (1949) and Spiegel magazine (1953).  A mere stroke of his pen resulted in his technical innovations.  In addition, Loewy participated in one of the 20th century’s great adventure – the space race – working with NASA to design the interior of both the Saturn I and Saturn V rockets.

Loewy was described by France Culture (radio station) as “the designer of the ‘American way of life’ in the 1940s.”  And indeed it became “impossible for an American not to be in contact with one or another of his creations at least once a day.”

Angelina Jolie Funds New Afghanistan School with New Jewelery Line

style of jolieE! News has revealed that Angelina Jolie plans to fund several schools for girls in Afghanistan with the help of a new jewelery line. According to the report, Jolie has opened a girls-only primary school in a high refugee population outside of Kabul. As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie has funded numerous efforts to improve education and quality of life for women in Afghanistan. The new school educates around 300 girls. Jolie’s first girls’ school was opened in east Afghanistan in 2010.

The new ‘Style of Jolie’ jewelery line was created by Jolie and jewelery maker Robert Procop. Jolie’s engagement ring was designed by Procop in 2012.

E! News quotes the actress: “Beyond enjoying the artistic satisfaction of designing these jewels, we are inspired by knowing our work is also serving the mutual goal of providing for children in need.”


Procop’s website supports her statement, saying: “the first funds from our collaboration together have been dedicated the Education Partnership for Children in Conflict (Jolie’s organization) to build a school in Afghanistan.”

In an interview, Procop added that it was “an honor to have the opportunity to be part of creating this line with Angie, as we both believe every child has right to an education.”

Oscar Acceptance Speech Highlights

The Oscars, which took place on Sunday, yielded exciting results.
Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ won Best Picture, while Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for his role in ‘Lincoln’.
The much-loved Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for her leading role in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, and newcomer Ang Lee won the award for Best Director for his film “Life of Pi’.
Anne Hathaway won an award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘Les Miserables’, and Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for his role in ‘Django Unchained’.


Here are some of the highlights from the event:

Bidding Adeiu to Lonesome George

A dying breed has officially died in the Galapagos Islands. The world has just said goodbye to Lonesome George, believed to be the last of his sub-species. George has gained fame over the years as the world’s rarest creature, since there are no other known members of his species and he produced no offspring.

Lonesome George was first discovered by a Hungarian scientist in 1971. For the past fifteen years, he’s been living at a breeding center on the island of Santa Cruz, as scientists have attempted to help him to breed, but any eggs he’s produced with females there have been infertile.

He was found by his longtime keeper, Fausto Llerena, who was shocked to find his body, since tortoises can live to be 200 and he was only 100. The Galapagos National Park will have a post-mortem to discover the cause of his death.

And with his passage, the sub-species of Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni has become extinct. While this breed used to be plentiful on the island, they were hunted by humans to the point of extinction.