Rudi Weissenstein

Rudi Weissenstein (1910 – 1992) was the most prominent chronicler of everyday life in the young state of Israel and his photographs are essential to understanding the country’s social history.
Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Weissenstein studied photography in Vienna. He worked as a press photographer before emigrating to Palestine in 1936 where he married Miriam Arnstein (1913 – 2011). They took over the Pri-Or PhotoHouse in Tel Aviv in 1940 and developed it into a renowned cultural institution. Weissenstein received numerous awards for his work including the first prize at the Moscow International Photography Exhibition. The PhotoHouse is now run by Weissenstein’s grandson Ben Peter and holds more than one million negatives. The archive is being reborn and as it celebrates its 80th anniversary many of its highlights are being published here for the first time. Weissenstein’s estate is represented by °CLAIR Gallery, its director Anna-Patricia Kahn is one of this book’s editors.