The Eye Behind the Camera

ART – MUSIC – CULTURE

Exhibition
22 October – 3 December 2010

 

The Eye Behind the Camera


photographs by
Elia Kahvedjian

Graf Zeppelin over Jerusalem, 1931 ©Elia Kahvedjian

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery features 25 rare silver prints, taken in the 1920’s and 30’s, of historically significant images of Palestine, such as that of uniformed Palestine Police mounted on camels, and the above image of the Graf Zeppelin dirigible over Jerusalem.

Photographer Elia Kahvedjian was born in 1910 in Ourfa, Turkey and passed away April 1999. In 1915, Elia’s family of both parents, five brothers, three sisters, uncles and aunts were massacred along with 1.5 million other Armenians. After being homeless, sold as a slave, and even chased by cannibals, Elia was rescued by the American Near East Relief Foundation (A.N.E.R.F) and taken first to Lebanon and then to Nazareth. Since his childhood, Elia had dreamed of becoming a photographer. Krik`orian and Toumaian, photographers in Jerusalem, made his dream a reality. When Elia came to Jerusalem, he was fascinated by Jerusalem’s historical places, landscapes and characters and began taking pictures in 1924.