Collectif de photographes The Associated Press

Photographers working for a wire agency find a place like Palestine and Israel is a fascinating daily adventure. An average of 70 pictures per day are sent by shooters to the Jerusalem hub, where they are edited, selected, captioned, and forwarded by satellite to thousands of newspapers and other news outlets around the world instantly. Only 20 make the cut on a good day. Regardless of other events happening in the world on a given day, the Holy Land is still the most covered, photographed and talked about place; maybe because it is where it all started, maybe because solving that conflict would solve others, in a domino effect.

No other story receives such scrutiny. This is the one place where as a photographer, hence as a journalist, you CANNOT afford to make ANY mistake. Even the slightest one, as everything can become a worldwide political argument overnight.

Many of the photographers whose pictures are included in this show never dreamt of becoming professional photojournalists. But for them, it was a matter of survival, telling the story as they see it, from where they live, and die.

In a way, this is the essence of pure photojournalism. Documenting your own backyard. Their pictures are of events happening in their villages, in their cities, in their country. And the only ambition is to document what they see, what they live.

Foreign photographers come and go. The Nassers and Mohammeds and Adels stay. For they cannot leave. But what brings all these journalists together is the passion they have to document history in the making with honesty. The result is what you see: reality, no tricks, no setups, no gimmicks, just the truth, seen through the eyes of those who experienced it first hand.