Queenstown, New Zealand. Photo: Ingrid Shakenovsky

DANNY GOCS

TAKING photos are part of the fun of holidays, so it is timely to offer a few tips on taking good travel photos.

And who better to ask for advice than some of the professional photographers whose work has appeared in The AJN over the years.

Edgar Asher is a photojournalist who founded the Isranet news agency in 1993 after making aliyah with his family from Britain in 1975.

His photos appear in newspapers and magazines around the world, including The AJN.

“Today’s digital cameras have opened up a new horizon to all amateur photographers. Although it’s possible to take hundreds of images without any extra cost, the best pictures are those that have been thought about before pressing the shutter,” he said.

“A photo of family members standing in front of a particular monument have their place, but usually lack imagination.”

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Lex Mrocki took this photo of Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner at the Yeshivah Centre in December 1993. Photo: AJN files

DALIA SABLE AND PETER HASKIN

THE AJN’s first staff photographer, Lex Mrocki, died last week following a short illness. He was 45.

Mrocki began working at The AJN in 1988, following the merger of the Sydney Australian Jewish Times and Melbourne’s Australian Jewish News.

He left 12 years later, but continued to provide his photos for publication in the paper up until his death.

Sam Lipski, AJN editor-in-chief when Mrocki was appointed, recalled the photographer as a cheery, courteous and committed colleague who worked above and beyond the call of duty.

“He put his body and soul into the paper. It was something he loved and it showed,” Lispki said. “People wouldn’t start an event if Lex wasn’t there to document it.”
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A photo of the Subotica Synagogue in Serbia from Jono David’s global collection. Photo by: Jono David

NAOMI LEVIN

A JEWISH photographer attempting to document synagogues around the world has criticised Australia’s community security institutions for “inflexible and underhanded” policies. Jono David is a Japan-based freelance photographer with a website that displays artistic photos of Jewish buildings all over the world.

“My mission is to contribute to the preservation of Jewish communities by documenting them photographically,” he wrote in an open letter to the Jewish community. Read the full story