Stephanie Cohen – A Portrait of an Artist, Photographer and World Explorer 

Second Photos Exhibition Opening 6.8.2025  

Good evening, and many thanks to all of you for coming here today, 

I am even more excited than the last time to see many family members, friends, acquaintances, and other guests who have come this evening, especially for the opening of Stephanie Cohen’s wonderful photo exhibition on her birthday. I’m very pleased that this exhibition allows her photos to reach more viewers and focuses on very interesting and special people across the world that Stephanie and I met during our trips in a way that only a few come in such proximity, and also shows the power, sensitivity and also her rare and unique photographic talent she had. 

Before I begin telling you about Stephanie, I would like to thank some special people who made it possible for me to stand here in front of you: First, to Liron Hershkovitz, chairman of “Out of the Box” charity, who is currently in New York, and was involved in every aspect to do with the exhibition and helped a lot to promote it, to Ilana Carmeli Lanner, the unique gallery curator, who chose the photos, designed the gallery space and wrote the texts, and to Michal-Sadan the amazing PR person, who is in charge of the media and press, that helped with her tremendous energy and networking to promote this exhibition in every available media channel. 

Additionally, I would like to thank the amazing Ania Shani, the former CEO of the Design Terminal Bat-Yam, who conceived the idea of launching this project, including photo exhibitions, and also suggested naming this gallery after Stephanie. And lastly, my dear cousin Ariel, who volunteers at the charity’s board of directors that initiated the connection between Ania and me. 

Firstly, I would like to tell you that I’m grateful for the unique privilege I had of sharing my life with Stephanie for over 47 wonderful years of great love and amazing experiences with a special and unique woman that she was.  

Stephanie and I travelled around the world to 50 Countries (UK excluded). We loved to travel and “explore” countries, people and remote tribes at the end of the world. I emphasise the word “discover” because we were very curious about any place we travelled to, and wanted to see and learn more about the lives of the people in the most remote and exotic locations. From the start, it became obvious that Stephanie was a naturally gifted photographer, and her photos are special, with a “Wow” element. I still remember how she had a glitter in her eyes when she identified a special object worth shooting. She was very quick in identifying that special situation, this moment of a person, an animal or a natural phenomenon that appeared only for a split-second but was captured in her camera or cellular phone. 

There is a significant difference between landscape photography and portrait photography. Both demand talent, composition, lighting, balance, and more. However, the main distinction is that in landscape photography, whether capturing a mountain, a river, or the sea, there is no interaction with the object. In portrait photography, you need to identify “interesting” subjects, know how to approach them, and establish a connection so they are willing to be photographed. Stephanie could make people want her to take their photo and often even to be photographed with her. Ilana, the curator, described it well, and I quote: “Taking photos was for her a quiet conversation, even when there was no common language, she knew how to listen through a look, feel the pulse of the place, and create a safe space in which the person in front of her could just be. This simplicity, this honesty, is what makes her photos so touching”. 

She radiated warmth and friendship towards everyone she met, and that is why whoever is looking at the photos on the website, which I created in her memory, could understand how people from different countries across the globe were happy to be photographed with her. In some countries, be it Japan, India, Papua New Guinea and other places, people stood near her without being asked and took photos or were being photographed. 

Furthermore, Stephanie had a keen willingness to know and understand how people are living in different countries while respecting their customs and religion and was always willing to visit remote villages and talk to the local people, visit their homes when possible, and, if needed, to eat some very unconventional dishes…  

We travelled to many conventional places but also went to some quite challenging remote locations without electricity or running water. 

Stephanie looked delicate and not physically strong, but in times of difficulties or complicated situations, she was cool and collected, tough and courageous, and so managed to overcome obstacles during some of our trips that most people wouldn’t have even considered doing. She wouldn’t want to miss any experience. 

Some examples: 

• In 2006, we travelled to Papua New Guinea. We visited remote tribes that could be reached only by very small planes. Each of us could carry a cargo of max. 10 kg. The plane took off and landed on a grass strip with no control tower or any airport facilities. We also visited tribes that lived on the banks of rivers. In one of these visits, our boat got stuck on a sand barrier, and Stephanie and all of our group had to get into the water and push the boat back into deeper water. After resuming the sail for a few minutes, we saw a huge crocodile about 7 meters long… 

• In 2010, we travelled to Hawaii. The unique and craziest adventure we ever did was to join what is called the Lava Boat: we boarded a small zodiac inflatable speedboat with two crew members and two tourists. We sailed some 20 km along the shores of Hawaii’s Big Island to watch how molten lava from an active volcano on the island flows in an underground tunnel and spills into the Pacific Ocean. The boat was sailing very fast in a rough sea. When we reached the site, we saw huge clouds of poisonous gas over the very hot seawater of more than 40°C and, from time to time, one could see the red lava flow gushing through these clouds. Unfortunately, Stephanie didn’t feel well from the rough sea, and the captain had to cut short the sail and head back to shore.  

The next morning, Stephanie didn’t give up on a pre-scheduled flight in a helicopter. We boarded it and flew over the Big Island, and also over the place where the molten lava flows into the ocean, where we had visited the evening before. This time the flight went very well… 

• In 2019, we travelled to India. Our trip plan was changed slightly, and so we arrived at the biggest festival in the world, called the “Kumbh Mela”. According to official publications, approximately 240 million people attended the festival during 48 days! It’s difficult to imagine the enormous number of people on the banks of the River Ganges, in the water, in many boats and thousands of tents on its shores.  There were also a lot of people congregated near us, wanting to be photographed or taking photos of us. 

All these experiences were photographed, and some were videotaped. They can be found easily on Stephanie’s website. There are also many more photo albums and videos to be found there.    

In Australia we flew in a helicopter over the Great Barrier Reef and landed on a floating platform in the middle of the Coral Sea, in New Zealand we flew in helicopter that landed on a glacier, in Brazil we flew in helicopter over the Iguazu Falls. We also visited Patagonia, Easter Island, Galapagos Islands, South Africa, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Japan, China and many other places. We sailed on the Amazon, the Mekong, the Yangtse, the Zambezi, the Mississippi Rivers and more.  

She loved and valued beauty or something special and unique: a landscape, a person, an animal, a historic building or an architectonically unique building and knew how to find the perfect shooting angle. But since she loved to document every interesting thing she saw, she also took pictures that can be described as “hard to watch” such as burning bodies in India, mummies in their clothes in open graves in Peru, monks’ skulls piled in churches, people living in very poor villages in India, Cambodia, Brazil, South Africa and more places.  

Stephanie loved to buy ethnic art artefacts (statues, tribal masks, pottery, etc.)  directly from the natives everywhere we went (Papua New Guinea, tribes in the Brazilian Amazon, Mexico, Peru, Easter Island, Australian Aborigines, Masai in Zanzibar and more).  

Elephants were her favourite animal. We saw them on our safaris in South Africa and Botswana and in their refuge in Laos. That is why she loved to buy many decorative elephants in all sizes, colours, and materials imaginable. There are over 80 of them in our flat.  

Stephanie also loved to paint with acrylic paints on canvas, and her paintings adorn our flat to this day. When people requested to buy some of her paintings, she declined the offers because she couldn’t part with them…She also did some drawings, collages and mosaics. 

Stephanie was employed in GKH law firm and also operated and managed the volunteering activity there, mainly by assisting the Tel Aviv municipality family club for children at risk in the Yad Eliyahu neighbourhood. Instead of moving the children out of their homes, the club forms a substitute and operates from after school hours until 7 pm, five days a week. The children receive hot meals, enriching education, help in doing homework and more. She was active in several areas: Firstly, helping the kids do their Math and English homework, Secondly, recruiting office employees and managing their roster in the club, and also raising funds to be allocated in the law office’s yearly budget to be used in addition to Tel Aviv Municipality funds. The office funds were used for trips, educational shows, improving the physical conditions in the club and bringing the kids to the law office for Purim parties and other celebrations. 

Stephanie’s volunteering activity went on from 2004 to 2020. She retired in 2013 but continued to be active in the club. She came on her own initiative and free time until 2020 (when the COVID pandemic broke out). During that time, she succeeded in acquiring additional funding for the club by “pulling strings” in GKH law office management, even though she was already retired from the office. 

She loved helping family members, friends and colleagues at work. She was a sort of “Wailing Wall” for quite some people who used to come to her office and tell her about their problems. She also assisted friends and other people who had some mental issues, some of them quite serious, for a long time.  

Some biographical facts about Stephanie:  

She was born in London and was an only child. She had a very happy childhood growing up with her family. At the age of 7, she moved with her parents to Southend-on-Sea, some 60 km east of London. She was active in the Southend Jewish youth club. In 1967, at the age of 14, after the Six-Day War in Israel, she walked 42 km for 8 hours, with her friends from the Jewish youth club, to raise money for buying an ambulance for Israel. At the age of 16, she joined Marks & Spencer’s head office. She advanced very rapidly and was promoted at the age of about 19 to become a menswear fashion buyer. She loved her job, which combined some of her favourite things: fashion, textiles, clothes and colours. 

In 1973, she came to Israel with her best friend Sylvia as a volunteer in Kibbutz Maayan Tzvi for six months. After returning to England, the Yom Kippur War broke out. After the war, Stephanie made Aliyah in April 1975. She was a real Zionist. 

She started working soon after her Aliyah as an English typist in the Israel General Bank Tel Aviv branch. I was working at the bank then, and that is how we met and never parted ever since… 

After our wedding in March 1977, one of us had to leave work at the bank because the bank policy didn’t allow married people to work at the same branch. Therefore, Stephanie started working as a secretary in a company that imported electronic parts. In 1986, she moved to the Kleinhendler Halevi law firm as a secretary. Her job expanded gradually as her bosses recognised her capabilities. She became the office manageress, but also dealt with additional jobs in the office. In 2001, her office merged with Gross Law Firm to become GKH Law Firm and one of Israel’s largest law firms. 

Her capabilities were quickly recognised in the new office, and she was promoted to become the office marketing manager and conference organiser. And, as I mentioned before, she managed and directed the office volunteering project of the Tel Aviv Club for children at risk.  

Stephanie was loved by all who knew her. She could connect with different people in character and areas of interest. She had a wonderful sense of humour and didn’t have an ounce of jealousy. She was very modest and never contemplated exhibiting her photos publicly. So, I hope that she forgives me now for my initiative… 

One of her friends described her as a pure soul, and I think that is exactly who she was. 

Before ending, I would like to draw your attention to the extensive, informative and interesting website that I created about Stephanie with the help of Ze’ev Liak, a specialist in creating websites. Everyone is invited to look at it by scanning the QR code at the Gallery front near her name. The website contains photo albums and videos of some of our travels and information about her life, volunteering activities and her artistic work.  The website address is https//:stephaniecohen.co.il 

And lastly but ever so important: I would like to remind you of the 50 Gaza hostages that are going through hell every day. I hope and pray that this ordeal will end soon. Amen! 

Thank you again, and I hope you will enjoy the exhibition