In ClampArt’s secondary gallery space, Rachel Papo’s earlier body of work, “Serial No. 3817131” will be displayed. Again inspired by her own experience as a young woman, Papo photographed the lives of female Israeli soldiers. She writes, “At an age when social, sexual, and educational explorations are at their highest point, the life of an eighteen-year-old Israeli girl is interrupted.” She continues, “She is plucked from her home surroundings and placed in a rigorous institution where her individuality is temporarily forced aside in the name of nationalism.” As artist and writer Charles Traub observes in the foreword in the accompanying book, youth is always the victim of conflict and war, and Papo knows it, sees it, and records it, reminding us that we cannot be innocent onlookers.

Rachel Papo’s work has been exhibited internationally, and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Griffin Museum of Photography, Wincester, Massachusetts; and the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center; among others.