From Holocaust exhibit coordinator to wildflower photographer: the extraordinary journey of Ita Goldberger

Ita Goldberger has led an extraordinary life, spending her time coordinating exhibitions at Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum, to photographing the wildflowers of her new home in WA following brain surgery. She’s the newest artist in residence at the Vancouver Arts Centre and will be in Albany for three weeks, sharing her story on how she came to photograph WA’s wildflowers. Goldberger first started photographing wildflowers after brain surgery five years ago when, during her recovery, she was looking for something to help her with the healing process. “My story is a bit different because I started going to the Australian bush after the brain surgery, which left me out of balance, and I had to get my balance back,” she said. “I started taking my camera with me and I almost broke it, so I decided to use only my phone camera. “I bought books on botany because I wanted to know more and more, because otherwise I felt I’d miss something. “The names are in Latin, and I don’t speak Latin, so it was a bit of a challenge. “After the operation, I felt like I had some blockage in my memory, so I got stuck with the names sometimes, it was a huge challenge. “I’m 73, and I thought ‘this is an amazing thing’, not only to go out and meditate in nature and breathe, but to also get closer in a way similar to the Aboriginals’ way of feeling the land. Goldberger moved to Australia from Jerusalem in 2000 with her two children, saying the move was “important” to her. “I was a pianist at the Music Academy in Jerusalem, I then lived in Sweden and studied social anthropology,” she said. “I then came back to Israel where I worked at the Holocaust Museum as a coordinator for all the cultural events at the museum for nine years before coming to Australia. “I was 50 years old and the Middle East was not a promising place. “And I just needed to change my life because my parents were Holocaust survivors and I really felt like I needed to go away from stress and life and just change my life.” She finds the uniqueness of flowers “hard to describe” and says meeting a new flower is like meeting a new person, a new personality to discover each time. “You know I can go to the bush and then I see a flower that I can’t believe,” she said. “So I sit down and take photos all over — from the top to the side, from the face, and from the bottom. “I’ll sit next to it and have a chat with it, have a sandwich, until I feel that I know that flower. “But I feel like I am meeting the personality when I see the flowers, and I’m excited every time I see a new flower.” Goldberger is sometimes joined by her granddaughter when she photographs new flowers, who at the age of five recognises so many different types of flowers and species because of time spent with her grandmother. “It also means education and to understand nature, and you care for it because you love it,” she said. Goldberger sees the flowers and the variety of the Australian landscape as vastly unique in the world, and has a genuine appreciation of the traditional culture of the land. “The way I see it my connection is survival because the Australian bush has survived millions of years,” she said. “My parents are survivors, so it’s like this strong bond to the beauty of the flowers and their uniqueness. “Language is a part of learning to know the world and that’s why I think it’s important with the Aboriginal language for example, because they draw the names from the land. “They lived off the land while people came from outside and hadn’t seen even red dirt before, including myself. “I’m very appreciative of the culture and language all over the world, and travelling and living all over the world has exposed me to those experiences.” Face to Face will exhibit at the Vancouver Arts Centre from September 4 to September 8.