Jacob El-Baz (El Baz) (born 1945) is a
photojournalist
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
, art photographer, and gallery owner.
Life and work
![Elbaz-PF71](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Elbaz-PF71.jpg)
El-Baz spent his early life on Kibbutz Sde Nehemia in the northern
Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...
and his photography career began there. His photograph of the flooding of the Jordan River in 1963 was used on the front cover of "Yediot Aharonot", along with another two of his pictures. He moved to Jerusalem to be a freelance photojournalist, taking photographs of celebrities such as
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
,
Teddy Kolek,
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...
, and
Golda Meir
Golda Meir, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and ''kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1 ...
. His pictures of poor Moroccan Jews in Haifa gained exposure for their living conditions and plans were made to improve the housing situation. Elbaz has taken photographs of the terrorist attack of the bus on the children of Avivim, the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
, negotiations of the cease-fire with the Egyptians at Km 101, the
Litani Operation, the Jewish/Arab tension and the friction between the Hasidic and African American communities in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Elbaz first moved to Toronto to work as a freelance photographer for the paper ''
Canadian Jewish News
The Canadian Jewish News is a non-profit, national, English-language digital-first media organization that serves Canada‘s Jewish community. A national edition of the newspaper was published for 60 years in Toronto. A weekly Montreal edition in ...
''. Elbaz won first prize in a photography competition with the subject "Israel" in the ''
Jewish Chronicle
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
'' with a photograph called "Torah and Peace".
He became an art dealer and eventually opened two art galleries in Toronto and two in the Soho district of Manhattan, New York. In his galleries Elbaz has sold the works of
Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero Angulo (born 19 April 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor, born in Medellín. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political ...
,
Yaacov Agam
Yaacov Agam ( he, יעקב אגם) (born 11 May 1928) is an Israeli sculptor and experimental artist widely known for his contributions to optical and kinetic art.
Biography
Yaacov Gibstein (later Agam) was born in Israel, which, at that time ...
, Michael Eisemann, and the original silk screens of
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
's "10 Jewish Geniuses".
His own work focuses on tension between communities. His work has been featured in ''
Canadian Jewish News
The Canadian Jewish News is a non-profit, national, English-language digital-first media organization that serves Canada‘s Jewish community. A national edition of the newspaper was published for 60 years in Toronto. A weekly Montreal edition in ...
,'' ''
ARTnews
''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...
,'' ''
The Jewish Press
''The Jewish Press'' is an American weekly newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York, and geared toward the Modern Orthodox Jewish community. It describes itself as "America's Largest Independent Jewish Weekly".
''The Jewish Press'' has an online v ...
,'' ''
San Diego Jewish Times,'' ''
The Toronto Chronicle,'' and ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
.''
Thirty six years after leaving, Elbaz returned to Israel. He set up a print making and framing studio, art gallery, and artists' studios at Kibbutz Sde Nehemiah. He is currently running an artists' placement to allow young artists to showcase their work whilst remaining in the north. In collaboration with local artists he will promote and sell Israeli art in North America.
[חדשות הוט צפון מהדורה *80 February 5, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bbwujr1VU]
References
External links
*
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bbwujr1VU
*http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879463,00.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elbaz, Jacob
1945 births
Living people
Israeli photojournalists
he:יעקב אלבז (צלם)