Uzi Ashkenazi moved to the United States in 1988 to major in photojournalism at Los Angeles Valley College. He documented the LA riots and learned that photographs can record events or create destruction and suffering. “Events such as the LA riots and the tragedies I witnessed as a child growing up in Israel strengthened my desire to focus on the human countenance, a fundamental element frequently overlooked. While photographing internationally, I experimented with facial expressions, a universal language. Thought and consciousness, ranging from transcendence to futility, from pride to modesty, from hope to despair, or from love to hate are frequently articulated through facial gestures, body gestures and eye contact,” said Ashkenazi.
Ashkenazi’s Vietnam portfolio, Faces in a Rice Paddy, was selected because of the diversity, the compassion, and the healing lessons of the Vietnamese. “Fifty-four ethnic groups have maintained their traditions and identities and have found peace after two decades of war. The Vietnamese have created a harmonious culture that has woven its ethnic mix into a beautiful, multi-colored, multi-cultural quilt,” wrote Ashkenazi. “Traditional customs strengthen the essential needs of the individual and the community. My goal is to produce photographs that inspire peace, as the Vietnamese inspired me. Although we are many cultures, races, religions, and nationalities, there are elements that can tie us together.”
After studying and developing his portfolio in Los Angeles, Uzi moved to New York City in 1999 and worked as a freelance photographer. He moved to Jamestown, NY in 2003 and moved back to New York City in 2005. While in Jamestown, he exhibited in the Weeks Gallery’s Eastern and Western Fusion show, which also featured Chinese painter Kong Ho, ceramicist Martie Geiger-Ho, and Japanese-American artist Yu Kanazawa. In the fall of 2004, Uzi participated in a Weeks Gallery Museum Without Walls artist-in-residence program at Washington Middle School and in the Spring of 2005 completed a similar residency program with Mark Kirsch at Southwestern High School.