Like anyone else, paramedics in Tel Aviv have families, money troubles, trivial pursuits. They dwell in darkness and are intimately acquainted with the elusive quality of the moment between life and death. These workers have been called to the scenes of a terrorist attacks, where they often earn a moment of fame in newspaper photos the day after. The job description is “life support.” A terrorist’s victim, the drunk driver, the old man with a weak heart are all the same in a sense—united in this fraction of time and space, this small window of opportunity. After a night’s hard work, they collapse on the couch with a beer, complain about the mortgage or the weather. Or both.

Israel-based Amnon Gutman was born on a kibbutz in 1977. After four years of travels, he studied photojournalism in Tel Aviv where he spent one year with paramedics on night shifts, a project awarded third prize in Israel’s national photography competition. A freelancer since 2006, Gutman has documented HIV/AIDS in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique, and the ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo focusing on the FDLR Hutu militia.

Text by Elice Gelkoff

This slideshow was selected by contributing art editor Ann Tornkvist.

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