20世紀後半に当時のユダヤ人の姿を25年間、40カ国に渡って記録したシリーズ「Diaspora」が広く知られているフランス人フォトグラファー、フレデリック・ブレナー（Frédéric Brenner）の作品集。本書は離散ユダヤ人の歴史とも深く関係する現代のイスラエル情勢に目を向け、記録された作品でまとめられている。パレスチナ自治区が直面している複雑さを12名の世界的写真家達の目を通して検証するプロジェクト「This Place」への参加から制作された作品を元に発行。

An Archeology of Fear and Desire is an attempt to recontextualise Israel as place and metaphor, exploring longing, belonging and exclusion. Frédéric Brenner follows up his opus Diaspora with a visual essay about Israel, a land of devouring myths in which constructs-- social and religious--perpetuate a tyranny of roles, which render us strangers to what is most intimate in ourselves. Brenner’s essay is an X-ray of an ongoing experiment in survival, portraying the complexity of multiple, dissonant identities. These images question the promise attached to this land and explore the cauldron of fear and shadow within this territory and in each of us, unrecognised, unredeemed, denied, dissimulated and silenced, where the other is instrumentalised and thereby sacrificed. An Archeology of Fear and Desire is part of a project entitled This Place, which explores the complexity of Israel and the West Bank, as place and metaphor, through the eyes of twelve internationally acclaimed photographers, consisting of a travelling exhibition, companion publications and a program of live events. Brenner initiated the project in 2006 and continues to guide it.