The publisher describes almost 25 years of Ad van Denderen’s work photographing daily life in Israel and the Palestinian territories. He originally worked in black and white, in a classical, direct reportage style; he later switched to colour and adopted a more detached, monumental photographic approach. Stone, published by Fw:Books, unites both bodies of work and uses stone as a recurring metaphor for a complex and precarious part of the world.

Stone principally defines the landscape, and with it the area’s water management and vegetation. Its quarries provide material for houses built on both sides of the border, and stones are used to throw up barriers and to throw at adversaries. At one and the same time, stone is a weapon, an obstacle, and a form of shelter.

The book was published in 2017. It is a softcover pocket volume measuring 13.5 by 20.5 cm, with 200 pages, colour images, and text by Ad van Denderen. The modest format brings an extended photographic inquiry into a compact object, giving the recurring material motif a scale suited to close reading.

Stone will interest readers drawn to photographic books that engage at length with a contested region. Its value lies in holding two photographic languages together while using a single material to think about dwelling, division, and endurance. A reader can follow stone across these different uses without treating the photographs as interchangeable illustrations. Landscape, construction and confrontation remain distinct, even as the same material connects them. That continuity gives the book a way to approach a difficult subject through specific, observable things.