“Documenting Israel: Visions of 75 Years” will open at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem on Independence Day. The exhibition will include documentation of Israel since before its establishment through photographs and works of renowned local and international photographers.
The exhibition was curated by Anna-Patricia Kahn, founder of the international photography gallery °CLAIRbyKahn. She has curated exhibitions of the most prominent photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The exhibition includes 120 photographs and one video, compromising the works of 12 artists from 1931 until today. The selected works draw a diverse portrait of Israeli society and offer many viewpoints to observe Israel, its development and the growth of its communities.
The founders of Magnum
Two founders of the international photography agency Magnum, Jewish photographers Robert Capa and David “Chim” Seymour, visited Israel frequently from 1947 to 1956 and closely documented the rise of the state in its earliest years. The documentation of these photographers, who gained worldwide fame due to their international work covering wars and conflicts, presents an optimistic point of view on the new state that was established from the ruins of the Holocaust.
The exhibition includes never-before-seen documentation from photographer Inge Morath, one of the first women members of the Magnum photographic agency. Her photographs will be shown alongside the work of other senior photographers, including Israeli photographer Micha Bar-Am and modern artists Benyamin Reich and Nanna Heitmann, as well as the video work of international Israeli artist Sigalit Landau.
The exhibition culminates in a large-scale exhibit that presents dialogue photographs taken in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s by Swiss avant-garde portrait photographer Helmar Lerski, alongside works commissioned in January by American photographer Bruce Gilden.
The exhibition will open to the general public starting in May. Entry is subject to prior registration on the museum’s website.