AVRAHAM SOSKIN ORIG. PHOTO "PORTRAIT OF A JEWISH MAN" SIGNED TEL-AVIV 1920's

Description

AVRAHAM SOSKIN ORIGINAL PHOTO
PALESTINE TEL-AVIV 1920-30s
PORTRAIT OF A JEWISH MAN
SIGNED IN INK IN HEBREW
SIZE: 23.5 x 17.7 cm.(9.2 x 6.9″)
SIZE WITH CARDBOARD: 35 x 27.8 cm. (13.7 x 10.9″)
SOME SMALL BROWN STAINS TO PHOTO
BROWN, STAINED BACK PAPER WITH SIGNATURE
Avraham Soskin
was born in Russia in 1884 and immigrated to Israel in 1905. He became renowned as the quintessential ‘Tel Aviv Photographer’, and was famous for capturing the historic housing lottery in Ahuzat Bayit (the genesis of the city). His photographs accompany the construction and development of the first Hebrew city, and are a key source of information on Tel Aviv’s first days, its streets, and its residents, as well as important events in its history.
Photos courtesy of Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv
Avraham Soskin (1881-1963) was the quintessential “Tel Aviv photographer” in the first decades following the city’s establishment. His photograph of the historic lottery of housing parcels that took place on April 11, 1909, on the Jaffa sand dunes is the most frequently reproduced and widely disseminated image of early Tel Aviv. Soon thereafter, the streets of the Ahuzat Bayit suburb were laid out and the first buildings erected. From 1914 to 1933 Soskin maintained his studio at 24 Herzl Street, down the block from the new town’s principal landmark, the Herzliah Gymnasium. After he closed his studio he supported himself through a typesetting (zincography) business.
The leaders of the Zionist movement, both in Palestine and abroad, were well aware of the power of photography as a medium for publicity and propaganda. Dozens of Soskin’s photographs were reproduced on postcards during the early years, and in 1926 some achieved canonic status when they were published in a small album aptly entitled
Tel Aviv
. Soskin is the most prominent photographer represented in the Eliasaf Robinson Collection, which has rich holdings of historically significant postcards, commercial photographs, and snapshots produced by other photographers.