the foreword. The work was supposed to show the
‘‘original Jewish type and its many branches’’ and
included photographs of their ‘‘milieu,’’ although
Lerski’s urban and landscape photography never
achieved anything like the intensity of his portrai-
ture. Of these, however, only a few ever made it to
print; the book project was never completed. In
1932 Lerski immigrated with his second wife to Tel
Aviv, where he continued his photography and also
took portraits of Arabs. He also turned once again
to film but without much success. In 1936, he began
to work on a new photo project,Metamorphosis
Through Light. Within three months he took 175
pictures of a single Jewish worker in the glaring
sun, always with the aid of mirrors. By 1930 he
had already conceived the idea for this work,
which he would later consider his masterpiece.
This project pushed to the limit the style that can
be found in his earliest photographs and that he
perfected inEveryday Heads: the transformation
of the face into sculpture; the suppression of all
physiognomic expression in the interest of pathos;
and the attempt to convey mysterious meanings and
character that reveal the sublime depths of the
human soul. In 1937, Lerski showed a number of
photographs in London, presenting them in a suc-
cession of projections from transparencies for five
weeks—a very unusual form of presentation at the
time. In Lerski’s exhibitions, the conceptually orga-
nized presentation of his works prevailed, more
than with other photographers of classical modern-
ism. In this respect, the projectsEveryday Headsand
Metamorphosis Through Lightpointed to the future.
When World War II made working conditions
difficult, Lerski reached back to older materials. In
Jerusalem in 1941 he showedImages of the Human
Face, which was based on his portraits of Jews and
Arabs. From the negatives he enlarged individual
details that produce a continuous concentration on
the speaking aspects of the face. He had already set
the stage for this project in an edition of the maga-
zineDie neue Linie. In addition, he created por-
traits of workers and soldiers for the propaganda
exhibition Fight and Work for the Jewish support
fund Keren Hajesod. He also worked again in film.
A number of his remaining photographic works
share the same preoccupation with the representa-
tion of humanity; for example, he photographed a
series of hands that he worked on in 1944 and a
series of portraits of wooden puppets illuminated in
expressionist lighting. After his return to Zurich in
1948, Lerski again gave up photography. Always
an artistic loner, characteristic of the great inde-
pendence of his style is that he was heralded as an
artistic precursor in the exhibitionSubjektive Foto-
grafie 2of 1955 by Otto Steinert, and at the same
time enjoyed a reputation as a socially critical
‘‘humanist’’ in the then German Democratic
Republic in East Germany, one of the few Western
avant-garde artists to receive such high recogni-
tion. Lerksi died in Zurich in 1956.
WolfgangBrueckle
Seealso:History of Photography: Interwar Years;
Lighting and Lighting Equipment; Modernism; Pic-
torialism; PortraitureBiography
Born to Polish parents (birth name: Israel Schmuklerski) in
Strasbourg, France, then part of Germany, February 18,- Raised in Zurich, Switzerland, after 1876. Received
Swiss citizenship, 1887. Moved to the United States, 1893.
Worked as an actor in German-language theaters in Chi-
cago, New York, and Milwaukee. Began learning photo-
graphy from his wife Emilie Bertha Rossbach and
established with her a studio, 1910. Photographs appeared
at the yearly meetings of the Photographers’ Association
of America, 1912–1914. Reputedly taught photography
and German at the University of Texas, 1914–1915.
Returned to Europe, 1915. Cameraman in many Berlin
film studios, 1915–1929. Technical director of Schu ̈fftan-
Photography, Deutsche Spiegeltechnik GmbH (Ufa),
1925–1927. Managed a photography studio, 1928–1931.
Photo and film work in Europe and the Near East, 1931– - Moved to Palestine; worked there as a cameraman
and photographer, 1931. Occasional European travels,
1937–1939. Return to Zurich, 1948. Honorary member
of the Palestine Professional Photographers’ Association, - Died in Zurich, November 29, 1956.
Individual Exhibitions
1915 Portraits; Galerie der Grafik-Verlag, Berlin, Germany
1930 Ko ̈pfe des Alltags; Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, Germany
1934 Jewish Heads; Massik Art Shop, Tel Aviv, Palestine
1936 Dynamic Photography; Divan Bookshop, Jerusalem,
Palestine
1938 Metamorphosis Through Light; Academy Cinema,
London, England
1941 Thirty Years of Photographic Works; Bezalel Jewish
National Museum, Jerusalem, Palestine
1942 Images of the Human Face; Bezalel Jewish National
Museum, Jerusalem, Palestine
1943 Fight and Work; Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Pales-
tine, and traveled through Palestine, to New York,
Johannesburg, South Africa, and London
1945 Human Hands; Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Palestine
1946 75th Birthday Exhibition; Mikra Studio, Jerusalem, Palestine
1948 Verwandlungen durch Licht; Kunstgewerbemuseum,
Zurich, Switzerland
1951 Helmar Lerski Photographien; Schauspielhaus, Zurich,
Switzerland
1955 Photographies de Helmar Lerski; Muse ́e de l’Etat,
Luxembourg
1958 Bruder Mensch; Staatliche Landesbildstelle, Hamburg,
GermanyLERSKI, HELMAR