Entry Title: " The Dead Sea"
Name: Drora Bashan, Israel
Category: Non-Professional, Other_N


Entry Description: The Dead Sea, a unique salt-lake, is the lowest point on earth and world's saltiest large water body, but it is dropping by 1 meter every year! The Dead Sea is drying up at an alarming rate. Unless immediate actions will be taken, to preserve this unique basin, the Dead Sea will die.
In this series of photographs, taken in the years 2007 and 2010, in the same area of the Dead Sea, I hope to show the beauty of this unique place and the unfortunate visible environmental deterioration.

After 30 years in the jewelry business I started a new phase. Since 2006, I have been studying photography and participating in Master class workshops. I participated in 7 group shows in Israel (2009-2010). Internationally, juried contests and shows: (2009-2012): Budapest (Pixrael, First prize contrast category), Shanghai (Inside Israel), London (Art Bin), Florida (3byOne), NYC (GLAAD'S Auction). Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery. 9 Exhibitions + 18 On-Line (2010-2012). Prix de la Photographie, Paris. (Px3) 2010. Honorable Mention, Landscape. On-Line. IPA 2010 Int'l Photography Awards, First place, Non-Professional, sub category Nature – other, series. + Annual Book. On-Line. LPA, Urbanscape 3, Single, awarded Silver, + series Commended. 2010. On-Line. PWP, "Contrast" contest, 2 Honorable Mentions. 2011. On-Line gallery. WPGA, Worldwide Photography Gala Awards: Chosen for "The Urban & Country Landscape Contest Book" + WonderPick Gallery. 2010. Chosen for "The Storyteller Contest Book" + WonderPick Gallery. 2011. WPGA, "The 2nd Edition of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award". Finalist, + awarded Honorable Mention. + Book. 2011. On-Line. LPA Still Life 5, Single Entry Silver Winner, + single entry Highly Commended. 2011. On-Line. Prix de la Photography, Paris. (Px3) 2011. Silver Award, Non-Professional, Nature-Flowers. + Annual Book. On-Line. IPA 2011, Int'l Photography Awards. Third place Non-Professional sub category Nature–Aerial, On-Line + Annual Book. + 3 Honorable Mentions, On-Line. MPLS Photo Center, "Off the Cuff" exhibition, juried by Madeline Yale, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan 2012. PWP "Spring 2012" Contest, juried by Mary Ellen Mark, Honorable Mention + On-Line gallery. 2012. "Skyward". 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, April 2012. "Abstracts, the Alternative Eye". 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, May 2012. I have a great passion for details. I love focusing on parts of the object, until it becomes "unrecognizable", discovering new out-of-context scenes which are then being exposed. We look at the world around us, but don’t we often miss and ignore its details? It gives me great pleasure to reveal those. The observers of my work are invited to share this experience and, then, take their own associative journey, wherever the fantasy takes them. I work with digital compact cameras, lately with G11. My work is spontaneous, un-staged and with no Photoshop manipulations. I photograph what captures my eye and heart.