Author Biography
Rudi Weissenstein (1910 - 1992) was the most prominent chronicler of everyday life in the young state of Israel. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Weissenstein studied photography in Vienna. He worked as a press photographer before emigrating to Palestine in 1936 where he married Miriam Arnstein (1913 - 2011). They took over the Pri-Or PhotoHouse in Tel Aviv in 1936 and developed it into a renowned cultural institution. Weissenstein received numerous awards for his work including the first prize at the Moscow International Photography Exhibition. The PhotoHouse is now run by Weissenstein's grandson Ben Peter and holds more than one million negatives. Ben Peter, grandson of Rudi Weissenstein, is from Tel Aviv, Israel. Today he is the owner of Pri-Or Photo House. Anna-Patricia Kahn is director of CLAIR Gallery, Munich, Germany/ Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, and represents Weissenstein's estate.