Accompanying the exhibition Tomer Ganihar | Philip Johnson: Transparent Secrets, this book presents Ganihar’s revelatory project in which the photographer investigated two buildings designed by celebrated American architect Philip Johnson: his iconic Glass House (1949) in New Canaan, Connecticut, and the nuclear reactor complex of Israel’s Soreq Nuclear Research Center (1958). At the heart of this project lies the tension between concealment and exposure, transparency and opacity, as well as between violence and creativity – for which the two buildings, as well as Johnson’s problematic biography, serve as case studies.

Alongside Ganihar’s large-scale color photographs, the book features curatorial essays by eminent art historian Robert Storr and Gilad Reich, curator of the Israel Museum Department of Photography, with Professor Storr sharing his decades-long experience of the international art scene, episodes from his personal acquaintance with Philip Johnson, and lively insights into the project, and Dr. Reich unfolding the story of Johnson, the reactor, and Tomer Ganihar’s work. In addition, a text by architect and historian Zvi Efrat presents for the first time an architectural discussion of the Soreq nuclear reactor.

Date of publication: 2024

Number of pages: 104 pages