Samuel Joseph Schweig, in Israel known as Shmuel Yosef Schweig (; 1905 in

Tarnopol Ternopil, known until 1944 mostly as Tarnopol, is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret (river), Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical regions of Galicia (Central Europe ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

– 19 March 1985 in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, 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 is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

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 The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

, then

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

, 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 The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

. In 1927 he established a workshop in Hanevi'im (Prophets) Street in

. 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 The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 from Qumran List of manuscripts from Qumran Cave 1, Cave 1. The scroll i ...

– one of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

– 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 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 A ...

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was a major American educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth century. In its last few years it ...

, 1978). Schweig produced at the request of the office of the

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...

an album of

Tegart fort A Tegart fort is a type of militarized police fort constructed throughout Palestine during the British Mandatory period, initiated as a measure against the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt. Etymology The forts are named after their designer, the Irish ...

s 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 Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

, the archive of the

, the

Central Zionist Archives Central Zionist Archives (CZA; ) 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 United Israel Appeal as well as the archive ...

and the

Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod's Gate, that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the exca ...

. 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 * 1977

Yakir Yerushalayim Yakir Yerushalayim (; ) is an annual citizenship prize in Jerusalem, inaugurated in 1967. The prize is awarded annually by the municipality of the City of Jerusalem to one or more residents of the city who have contributed to the cultural an ...

– "Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem" * 1978 Enrique Kavlin Photography Prize,

, 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 histor ...

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)

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweig, Samuel Joseph Israeli photographers 1905 births 1984 deaths Artists from Ternopil Archaeological photographers Photographers in Palestine (region) Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Burials at Har HaMenuchot