Samuel Joseph Schweig, in Israel known as Shmuel Yosef Schweig (1905 in
Tarnopol
Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
– 19 March 1985 in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, Israel) was an Israeli photographer.
Biography
Early life in Europe
Shmuel Joseph Schweig (S.J. Schweig) was a photographer born in 1905 in
Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He showed interest in photography still while in Tarnopol and later studied it in Vienna.
[
]
In Mandate Palestine and Israel
His Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
convictions made him emigrate
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
to the Land of Israel, then Mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
, already in 1922.[ Here he started his career photographing sites and landscapes of the country.][ Between 1925 and 1927 Schweig worked as a photographer for the ]JNF
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subsequ ...
. In 1927 he established a workshop in Hanevi'im (Prophets) Street in Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. The first color photographs taken by a local photographer in Palestine were done by Schweig.
After specialising in archaeological photography, he became the chief photographer of the Department of Antiquities of the Mandatory administration,[ housed from 1938 onward by the Palestine Archaeological Museum, a.k.a. the Rockefeller Museum.
Beginning in the 1920s, his photographs helped shape the world's perception of the Zionist enterprise. But Shmuel Joseph Schweig is equally renowned as Israel's first artistic photographer of landscape and archaeology. Schweig is considered one of the most important of those who fashioned the image of Palestine, beginning in the 1920s, and he is identified with the Zionist enterprise and the nation-building project of the Jewish people. However, he saw himself above all as an artistic photographer; indeed, he is considered the first local art photographer of landscape and archaeology.
Some of the early photographs of the Great Isaiah scroll – one of the ]Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...
– was taken by Schweig.
Book publications
He worked at several archaeological publications and was in charge of the illustration and layout of the Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (editor Michael Avi-Yonah
Dr. Michael Avi-Yonah (September 26, 1904 – March 26, 1974) was an Israeli archaeologist and historian. During his career he was a Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as secretary of Israel's Department of ...
, Prentice-Hall, 1978).[
Schweig produced at the request of the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies an album of Tegart forts known as "The Police Stations Plan 1940–1941", "The Wilson Brown Buildings" or "From Dan to Be'er Sheva".]
Museums and archives
The Schweig collection, which includes both glass and large gelatin negatives, is divided among the Israel Museum, the archive of the JNF
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subsequ ...
, the Central Zionist Archives
Central Zionist Archives (CZA; he, הארכיון הציוני המרכזי) is the official archive of the institutions of the Zionist Movement: the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, and Keren Hayesod/the U ...
and the Rockefeller Museum
The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), and which before then housed The Imperial Museum of Antiquities (''Müze-i Hümayun''; 1901–1917), is an archaeology museum located in East ...
. Many original prints, mostly small in size, are held by private collectors.[
]
Education
* 1921 Photography, Vienna and London
* 1930 London University, languages, and Photography School, London
Titles, awards and prizes
* 1976 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
* 1977 Yakir Yerushalayim Yakir Yerushalayim ( he, יַקִּיר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם; en, Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) is an annual citizenship prize in Jerusalem, inaugurated in 1967.
The prize is awarded annually by the municipality of the City of Jerusalem to o ...
– "Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem"
* 1978 Enrique Kavlin Photography Prize, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
* Member of the Council of the Israel Exploration Society
The Israel Exploration Society (''IES'') (Hebrew:החברה לחקירת ארץ ישראל ועתיקותיה - Hakhevra Lekhakirat Eretz Yisrael Va'atikoteha), originally the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, is a society devoted to historic ...
[
]
Selected exhibitions
The Open Museum for Photography, Tel Hai.
*1971: a solo exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
*1985: second exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
*2010: "Shmuel Joseph Schweig: Photography as Material", at the Open Museum of Photography in the Tel Hai Industrial Park
Articles
* Niche, 1 June 2010 (Hebrew)
* Masa Aher, 1 August 2010 (Hebrew)
* HA'ARETZ – GUIDE, 6 August 2010 (Hebrew)
* Yediyot Haifa, 3 September 2010 (Hebrew)
Further reading
*
* Perez, Nissan (ed), Camera Sacra, The Israel Museum, 2005
External links
*
See also
* Ze'ev Aleksandrowicz
Ze'ev (Wilhelm) Aleksandrowicz (Hebrew: 'זאב אלכסנדרוביץ) (April 7, 1905 – January 5, 1992) was an Israeli photographer. He is mostly known for his work in Palestine and Japan, during the first half of the 1930s.
Early life
Ale ...
(1905–1992), Polish-born photographer, active in Mandate Palestine between 1932 and 1935
* Zoltan Kluger
Zoltan (Zvi) Kluger (February 8, 1896 – May 16, 1977) was an Israeli photographer. He is known as one of the most important photographers in Mandatory Palestine.
Biography
Zoltan Kluger was born in the city of Kecskemet in Hungary in 1896. Du ...
(1896–1977), important photographer in pre-state Israel
* David Rubinger
David Rubinger ( he, דוד רובינגר; 29 June 1924 – 2 March 2017) was an Israeli photographer and photojournalist. His famous photo of three Israeli paratroopers after the recapture of the Western Wall has become an iconic image of th ...
(1924–2017), Israeli photographer, author of photo of paratroopers at the Western Wall in Six-Day War
* :de:Herbert Sonnenfeld (1906–1972), German Jewish photographer, husband of Leni, photographed in Mandate Palestine in the 1930s[
* ]Leni Sonnenfeld
Leni is a ''comune'' (municipality) and one of the main towns on Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands, in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy. It is located about northeast of Palermo and about northwest of Messina.
Leni ...
(1907–2004), German Jewish photographer, wife of Herbert, photographed Israel in the early years of its existence[Beit Hatfutsot Photo Collections]
The Herbert and Leni Sonnenfeld Collection
accessed April 2020
* Rudi Weissenstein
Shimon Rudolf "Rudi" Weissenstein (Hebrew: רודי ויסנשטין; February 17, 1910 in Jihlava, Bohemia – October 20, 1992 in Tel Aviv) was an Israeli photographer. He was best known for his extensive photo documentation of the everyday life ...
(1910–1999), Israeli photographer, author of iconic Declaration of Independence picture
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweig, Samuel Joseph
Israeli photographers
1905 births
1984 deaths
Artists from Ternopil
Archaeological photographers
Early photographers in Palestine
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine