Photography

The Department of Photography began its activities in 1977: collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and tracking the achievements of photography in Israel and around the world. The photography collection of over 6,000 works (including permanent and loan collections) offers a wide variety of approaches and artists. Highlights of the collection include modern and post-modern Israeli and international photography alongside 19th century photographs of Palestine and19th international photography; and American journalist photography from the 1930s to 1950s.

Donors to the collection include the Schocken family, Cornelle Capa, Michael S. Sachs, Léon Constantiner who initiated the Constantiner Photography Award for an Israeli Artist, Howard Schickler and David Lafaille, and the America Israel Cultural Foundation. Special collections within the Department include: a large and representative body of works by the photo-journalists Weegee and W. Eugene Smith, donated by Michael S. Sachs; a unique collection of the glass negatives of artist Efraim Moshe Lilien, donated by the Schocken Family; Soviet photography from 1930s to the 1970s, donated by Howard Schickler and David Lafaille and an anonymous donor; a strong representation of works by Henri-Cartier Bresson, courtesy of the Rich Foundation; and a comprehensive selection of works from the pre-State period by the photo-journalist Robert Capa, donated by Cornelle and Edith Capa. Tiranit Barzilay Image no. 6 1995

Henri Cartier Bresson Behind the Saint-Lazare Station, Paris, 1932 Bareket Ben-Yaacov Untitled 1988