I never played a musical instrument. I can't read notes, and I can't identify the chords of a song. Yet music was always a significant part of my life.

Years ago music was a real obsession for me. Back then the only way to be an obsessive music junky back then was to buy records, and the only way to discover new music was to listen to commercial radio stations and to watch MTV.

Being as obsessive as I was, this clearly wasn't enough. So I gradually developed an original method in order expand my knowledge (and my music library). Whenever I went to the record store with my album wish list, I also grabbed an album (or two) I knew nothing about - in many cases by an artist I knew nothing about. I just took it home with me, went into my room, turned off the lights, and let myself sink into the music I hear for the first time.

Now, imagine having to pick a random record from a selection of thousands of albums. The best way I could come up with for doing that was by what's on the outside: the album cover. Although music was at the core of my obsession, I soon found myself collecting album covers at least in the same passion I collected the music inside.

I do most of my photography work by wandering the streets, often while they are empty and quiet. That's part of the magic, so I don't take music for the road with me. But sometimes something I see suddenly does it - something I see pushes a button in an imaginary jukebox and a song starts playing in my mind. I love the synergy between senses - when a visual draws you to music, when music creates a visual image in your mind. Sometimes, the two are a perfect match. So perfect that they become inseparable - as if they were created together, or as if they found each other after drifting separately in the universe for years.

The Re:Cover Project is a collection of alternative cover art for songs I love - songs that touched me at some point in my life. I believe the song each photo is associated with makes the photo more alive and meaningful. I hope the visual also adds some new perspective to the music. At least for me, the two become one.

I started the project with visualizing a song I cannot get out my head for quite some time - a song dedicated to Gilad Shalit who is being held in captive since June 2006. I hope that someday soon Gilad will be back home with his family and this beautiful song will become... just another beautiful song.