S. Narinsky of Palestine

Abstract

The pictures which illustrate this note are photogravures, made on the basis of photographs by S. Narinsky between 1910 and 1920, and marketed by Jamal Bros. of Jerusalem from 1921 onward. They were made into postcards for sale to tourists, but are now long out of print. N arinsky was a somewhat mysterious figure, whose story has only recently come to light. He was born in 1885 in a small town in Russia, where he later belonged to a group of young socialist Zionists. At the beginning of this century he emigrated to Palestine. Among his early friends in the ‘workers’ commune' in Jerusalem were Yizchak Ben Zvi (later the second President of Israel), David Ben Gurion and other leaders of the socialist movement in Palestine. Narinsky soon dropped out of active politics and devoted himself to photography and painting. In 1904 he spent a short time in Paris, where Cezanne became his idol. It may well be that he also became acquainted with the work of Demachy, Stieglitz and Evans during this visit; at any rate, their influence is visible in N arinsky' s portraits and city-scapes.