Jacob Benor Kalter. Jerusalem.

(PHOTOGRAPHY).

Group of eleven photographs. Each pencil signed by the photographer.

For nearly two decades, Yaakov (Jacob) Benor-Kalter (1897-1969) traversed the Old City of Jerusalem, documenting renowned historical monuments, ambiguous subjects in familiar alleyways, and scores of “new Jews” building a new homeland. Benor-Kalter’s photographs smoothly oscillate between two worlds, and two Holy Lands, with one lens. After immigrating from Poland to the British Mandate of Palestine, Benor-Kalter worked as a photographer and graphic designer, employed by both the British government and several Zionist organizations. His photographs, taken between 1923 and 1940, established a new visual record, providing a romanticized glimpse into the British colonial endeavor while offering a contemporary view of the plans to create a modern Jewish State in the region. See Magnes Museum Exhibition: https://magnes.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/project-holy-land.