American Colony

The American colony of Jerusalem, a community of about one hundred people founded in 1881, was born as a utopian colony at the hands of Christians from the U.S. and from Northern Europe; it was a center of religious assistance for pilgrims in the Holy Land but soon became a center of health and social assistance; a hotel was built, which still exists and a shop, The American Colony Store. Colony members begin photography with the assistance of Elijah Meyers, a Jewish convert to Christianity, who came from India in 1898, to document the state visit of the Prussian Emperor William II. The American Colony Photographic Dept. was therefore formed and the photographic studio was known since then as American Colony. The profits of the photographic company were reinvested to improve the living conditions of the community. There were many internal and external collaborators, including Elijah Meyers, Hol Lars (Lewis) Larsson, G. Eric Matson, Erik & Lars Lind, Furman Baldwin, John Whiting, Hanna Safieh, Joseph H. Giries, Garabed Krikorian, Felix Bonfils, Francis Frith, Felice Beato, Mason Good, James Graham, Zangaki, James Robertson, Khalil Raad, Samuel Bourne and others unknown to us. Elijah Meyers started the young Swedish Hol Lars Larsson (later Lewis Larsson) as a photographer. Larsson (1881-1958) was among the original group of Swedish colonists who arrived in Jerusalem in 1896. He became one of the best photographers. During long journeys to the Middle East between 1903 and 1910, Larsson got to know the land and its people. Talented observer, he knew which scenes were important to capture visually. He photographed landscapes and scenes from village life. Among the historical events he has documented are the violent struggles at the end of the First World War and the collapse of Ottoman rule. Larsson married Edith, Olof Henrik Larson's youngest daughter, thus consolidating his ties with the Swedish contingent of the American colony. In 1904, Lewis Larsson succeeded Elijah Meyers as head of the photographic department. Larsson headed the department for the next thirty years, although he was Vice Consul and later Swedish Consul for Palestine from 1920 to 1920.

From 1934 American Colony became "The Matson Photo Service". G. Eric Matson (1888-1977) arrived at the American colony as a child, arriving from Sweden with his family in 1896. He began working in the darkroom of the Department of teenage photography in the early 1900s, although he is not sure when he actually started taking pictures. Matson married an American, Edith Yantiss (1889-1966), who also worked in the darkroom. Together, the Matsons excelled in innovative techniques, such as coloring photographs with oil colors, producing stereoscopic photographs, infrared photography and aerial work. The Matsons continued their activity in Jerusalem until shortly after the state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. The main employees of the photo shoot were John Whiting and two Palestinians, Hanna Safieh (1910 -1979) and Joseph H. Giries, who had started as apprentices.

In 1946, faced with growing violence in Palestine, the Matsons left Jerusalem for southern California. Staff sent most of the negatives to the United States, while Jerusalem operations also continued to function. The Jerusalem shop and offices suffered severe damage during the 1948-1949 conflicts, but the remaining stock of negatives was safely transferred to another area of ​​Jerusalem. At the beginning of the 1950s, with tourism in decline, the staff of the photo shoot dispersed, leading to the closure of the business. The Matsons continued to sell photographs from California.

Other photographers

Jerusalem is of fundamental importance in the history of photography. The missionaries immediately used photography to encourage travelers to visit the Holy Land. By 1910, inexpensive postcards have supplanted old albumin prints as the primary means of advertising for religious tourism, just beginning. Although photography only arrived in Palestine a few months after Daguerre officially disclosed his invention, it was not a profession practiced by Palestinians until the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The first photographic studio in Palestine was therefore founded in Jerusalem by the Armenian photographer Garabed Krikorian around 1885. The final years of the nineteenth century saw the establishment of other photographic enterprises in the city, including that of Khalil Raad, former collaborator of American Colony . I propose a definitely incomplete list of the studies operating in Palestine:

Abbud Karimeh [Karima]

American Colony

Bain Robert Edward Mather

Bergheim Peter

Biever J.B.

Bierstad Charles

Bravermann H.

Damiani

Diness Mendel John

Drake Charles Frederick Tyrwhitt

Garabedian Yessai (Phot.du Couvent Armenien)

Gherardi A.

Graves Carlton H.

Hentschel Bruno

Hotimsky Jacob

Krikorian Garbis [Garabeb]

Matson Eric

Nalbandian Y.

Narinsky Shlomo

Narinsky Sonja

Pierotti Ermete

Quarelli Francesco

Raad Khalil

Raffalovich Yeshayahu

Rau William Herman

Ritavsky Avraham Aharon

Saba Fadil

Saba N.M.

Saboungi Davide [Sabounji Dâwûd]

Salzmann

Savvides Miltiade

Lutuf scutschi

Vernet Horace Emile

Vester Frederick

From the list we see that some Italian photographers operated in Palestine (this too is to be verified for some of them) including Saba, Pierotti, Damiani, Gherardi. The latter has a beautiful print archive, reproduced on the left.

Three different personalities with three distinct roles and three different cultures and traditions, Jewish Christian and Muslim, the great monotheistic religions, collaborated together in order to preserve the Holy City: the governor of Jerusalem Mustapha Surraya Pasha who ordered, around 1850, the production of the photographic material, the Italian engineer Ermete Pierotti who, in charge of drawing up the cadastral maps of the city, asked the Jewish photographer Mendel John Diness for his collaboration. So it was that the photographer obtained official and unprecedented permission to enter areas considered off-limits due to religious sensitivities. Pierotti recounted his experience in a book General Magazine of Ancient and Modern Palestine, 1866: Historical Chronology, Topography, Divisions, Products Legends, Traditions and also in Jerusalem Explored, Volume I & II - Being a Description of the Ancient and Modern City, with Numerous Illustrations Consisting of Views, Ground Plans and Sections by Ermete Pierotti.