Lot 115: Shoemaker - Photograph by Helmar Lerski

Shoemaker, photograph by Helmar Lerski (1871-1956).
15X12.5 cm. Mounted on thick paper. Good condition. Stains. Minor abrasions and blemishes to mount. Captioned on verso: "Helmar Lerski XV" (in pencil); "Copyright paid" (in pen).

Helmar Lerski (1871-1956), cinematographer, photographer and theater actor; one of the most important photographers of pre-state Israel. Lerski grew up in Zurich. His parents were Jewish immigrants of Polish origin. In 1893 he immigrated to the United States, where he joined a theater group with which he toured the cities of the Unites States and Europe – Chicago, New York, Berlin, Zurich and elsewhere – for some twenty years.
In 1910, after leaving the theater, Lerski opened a photography studio in Milwaukee. He started developing a new technique of photography with mirrors; his unique, dramatic play of light and shadow, became the hallmark of his work. In 1915 he returned to Europe, settling in Berlin, where he became involved in filmmaking (he was the cameraman on various films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis, released in 1927). In the early 1930s, he immigrated to Palestine. His apartment in Tel-Aviv soon became a regular meeting place for the city's photographers, and in 1940 he was elected honorary president of the Palestine Professional Photographers Association (PPPA). In Palestine Lerski created several important series of expressionist photographs, using his unique technique: portraits of Jewish soldiers and of pioneers at work, studies of workers' hands, and more. He also directed the films "Avodah" ("Work", 1935), "Mangina Ivrit" ("Hebrew Melody", 1935), "Yaldei HaShemesh" ("Children of the Sun", 1939) and "Adamah" ("The Land", 1947).