Audio webcast interview with the author below Documentors of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel 1890-1933 (Magnes Press and Jewish Publication Society), is the first comprehensive book to chart the origins and development of local photography seen through the eyes of Jewish photographers. The book is part of the series Israel Studies in Historical Georgraphy, edited by Yehoshua Ben-Arieh and Ruth Kark. The material in Documentors of the Dream is based on primary research mostly from Israeli archives, and interviews with descendants of the early photographers. Documentors of the Dream is the work of photographer and photo historian Vivienne Silver-Brody, of the Silver Print Gallery in the Israeli artists' village of Ein Hod on the Carmel (audio webcast interview with Ms. Silver-Brody below). The photographs, largely unknown and unpublished, testify to a moment when a nascent society set in motion utopian ideas that were to lead towards institutions of contemporary Israeli society. They depict old Yishuv and new Zionist lifestyles, village society, the beginnings of the kibbutz, labor battalions, the guarding of settlements, development of agriculture and land reclamation, construction of roads, the growth of new cities, immigration and community welfare. If you don't already have the Real Audio plug-in for your browser, you can download the free RealPlayer from Real Networks in order to hear the broadcast. Click on a topic: 1. How the idea for publishing the book came about 2. What is unique about the period 1890-1933? 3. Sources for the photographs 4. The author as collector 5. A portrait of Ya'akov Ben-Dov, one of the photographers featured in the book 6. Why these photographs have never been published previously 7. What the author found most emotionally gratifying in this project 8. The state of the art in Israel today 9. The author's private photography gallery in the Israeli artists' colony, Ein-Hod Vivienne Silver-Brody, of the Silver Print Gallery in the Israeli artists' village of Ein Hod on the Carmel, is a photographer and photo historian, collector, freelance exhibition curator, writer and lecturer. Her articles have appeared in the book With Eyes toward Zion; in journals such as Cathedra, Ariel, Eretz, and The Jerusalem Post. The following passage is an excerpt from the essay, "The Photographers in Context," with selected photographs from the book. Archives and private and family collections have yielded unexpected finds. Although this book covers only ten photographers, there were others who were active for lesser and longer periods, whether established in the country as part of the newly formed Zionist movement or visitors curious to see the Zionist activity for themselves. Continuing research reveals a growing list of local studios which offered their services both before and after World War I. Sometimes tourists with their own cameras contributed by taking snapshots, thus providing evidence of unexpected situations. Photographer unknown. Pupils of the trade school in Jaffa, 1906 Central Zionist Archives Click to view photo enlarged The photographers, as personalities, have generally been obscured by the imperatives of the period. Their works reflect not only the period but are also a photographic achievement. Five devoted most of their working lives to the pursuit of photography; they were recognized in their time and yet have not been written about. Some have become known through exhibitions of their work, others produced albums which have become collectors' items, while others are hardly known at all. Books on every aspect of Zionist history have used their photographs as illustrations, almost universally without acknowledgment. This book is an attempt to reverse that process: to acknowledge the photographer and to set the images in the content of the oeuvre.... Tsadok Bassan. Etrog (citron) harvest by the Citrus Fruit Association. Place unknown, c. 1900 Central Zionist Archives / Jewish National Fund Archive Click to view photo enlarged It was not until World War I that photographic exhibitions began to take place, and albums were published in Eretz Yisrael. Four of the photographers included in this book displayed a facet of entrepreneurship by publishing art portfolios during the British Mandate (1917-1948), when an interested audience began to emerge. Most of the albums were printed in Europe and were enhanced by the rich tonality of the photogravure process which was then in fashion. Yosef Schweig. Lodzia textile factory, Tel Aviv, 1920s Jewish National Fund Archive Click to view photo enlarged Washday at the Bat-Nesher kindergarten. Haifa, 1925 Jewish National Fund Archive Click to view photo enlarged The creation of albums and the mounting of photographic exhibitions (such as that of Schweig, held in the Steimatzky bookstore in 1927 and in 1933), and the press reports of these events, indicates an attention to the work of the individuals even during a period when emphasis on the collective spirit was pronounced. The albums and exhibitions were some of the few instances when photographers could indulge in personal statements without being directed to by the demands of the Jewish institutions and their publicity demands. The photographers who appear here were an integral part of the time frame. They were just as motivated as other idealists who willed the hebrew language into an everyday event, worked the soil, built farms and thenew cities. The initiators of Hebrew theater, music, poetry, dance, art and photography were all pioneers, but somehow photography was never studied, and the photographers are literally in danger of being forgotten Ya'akov Ben Dov. Orange-picking at Petah Tikvah, c. 1910-1912 Silver Prints Collection Click to view photo enlarged Yosef Schweig. Atlit fishermen, 1920s Silver Prints Collection Click to view photo enlarged I am as interested in the artists as I am in their prodigious output. In the process of looking at their work, each photographer emerges as a work unto himself, linked by different facets of this century's history. Leo Kahn. Washday at the cooperative village Kinneret, on the shores of the lake of Galilee, 1912 Central Zionist Archives Click to view photo enlarged Tsadok Bassan. Interior of kindergarten. Jerusalem, 1907 Central Zionist Archives Click to view photo enlarged It may be said that these photographers are unsung heroes. Some of them devoted most of their working lives to documenting the remarkable period when society was small and integrated, and everybody knew everybody else. Unknown in the international history of photography, they championed not a particular movement in photography, but the settlement of the land. They were indispensable observers of history in the making. Avraham Soskin. Tel Aviv's water tower, and the first kiosk erected on the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Herzl Street, 1910 Silver Prints Collection Click to view photo enlarged Tsadok Bassan. Diskin Orphanage, Jerusalem. Orphan next to his bed, 1920s Central Zionist Archives Click to view photo enlarged Documentors of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel 1890-1933 (Magnes Press and Jewish Publication Society)