The Shpilman Institute for Photography (the SIP) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support international scholarship and artistic projects that advance the practices, uses, and effects of photography. We facilitate, promote, and initiate research, open debate, and creative work in the field of photography that advance the understanding of photography and related media throughout the world.
The SIP programs encompass both historical and contemporary photography, with a special interest in its relationship to philosophy, and include public events such as conferences and panels, a grants program, publications, and a dynamic website for scholarly research and professional updates. The SIP is actively involved in the promotion of photography in Israel and supports and produces events that inquire into the photographic fields with both academic and artistic organizations
The SIP’s goals are to advance knowledge of photography’s expressions, applications, the ideologies and mechanisms that surround its practices. We initiate and support research on photography that allows one not only to better the understanding of the world of photography, but also to understand the world through photography, both within and beyond traditional social and cultural boundaries.
The SIP allows varied audiences to participate, collaborate, interact, research, learn, exchange ideas, create, and think together on the meanings and functions of photography.
The SIP was founded in 2010 by Shalom Shpilman, a scholar, collector, and a supporter of the arts. In 2012, a new exhibition space will open in Tel Aviv.