Serial No. 3817131 (A photographic essay of women in the IDF)

http://www.rachelpapo.com/ ^ | 2005 | Rachel Papo

[FreedomCalls]

The life of an eighteen-year-old girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism. “I solemnly swear…to devote all of my strength and to sacrifice my life to protect the land and the liberty of Israel,” repeats the newly recruited soldier during her swearing-in ceremony. She enters the two-year period in which she will change from a girl to a woman, a teenager to an adult, all under a militaristic, masculine environment, and in the confines of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict.

I decided to portray female soldiers in Israel during their mandatory military service as a way for me to revisit my own experience. I served as a photographer in the Israeli Air Force between 1988-1990. It was a period marked by continuous depression and extreme loneliness, and at the time I was too young to understand these emotions. Through a series of images showing female soldiers in army bases and outside, individually or in groups, I attempt to reveal a facet of this experience that is generally overlooked by the global community.

~Excerpted

[Born Conservative]

Except for the moustache...

[stm]

That's why hydrogen peroxide was invented!

Here's a whole gaggle of them:

[SevenofNine]

OH CANTEEN MEMBERS LOL!

[Delta 21]

Nice Uzi!

[FreedomCalls]

I just noticed by clicking through some of the links on her web page, that these pictures are currently on exhibition at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles until the 15th of April.

[finnman69]

compare to these women

[HitmanLV]

I surrender!!!

[Delta 21]

I bet they dont shower with their weapon.

These girls look like they are getting some real world training.

[FreedomCalls]

More here. 377 more pages of pictures of women in the various armed forces around the world to be exact.

[FreedomCalls]

I bet they dont shower with their weapon.

It certainly seems to be not ever too far from their reach.

[StarCMC]

WOW!! Thanks for the ping!!

[unixfox]

Sorry, but I just don't feel that safe with a bunch of women thinking they can defend themselves much less an army of men that WILL kill them at the drop of a hat.

[Delta 21]

I was referring to the lovelies in #26.

It looks like these Israeli girls took a Marine Corp-esque creed to their weapon.

[monkeyshine]

ping

[FreedomCalls]

Oh, sorry. I misunderstood. I guess this is basic training or some other type training they are in.

[SevenofNine]

OMG only NAG gang would hit on those ladies LOL!

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"What a bunch of rag bags".

---

I would rather train them to fight than to parade down the street. A couple of years of this wouldn't hurt our kids.
Fort Dix sure was good for my little daughter. I take some of the credit, she was making head shots on squirrels with a .22 by the time she started 4th grade.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Here's a whole gaggle of them:

A whole giggle of them?

[Robert A Cook PE]

The 11th Commandment at boot camp:

Thou shalt keep the strap of thy weapon across thy shoulder at all times, and down thou shall point it, lest the wrath of thy drill sergeant be held against you, and mighty be her wrath.

[Gay State Conservative]

Basic Training wouldda been a lot more fun if my "fellow" trainees had looked anything like that.