This unique book presents, more than 85 years after its publication was halted in Nazi-era Berlin, a fascinating album of 103 portrayals of Yemenite immigrants to the land of Israel taken by Jakob Rosner in 1936–37. The German-born Rosner, whose work was influenced by new approaches to photography in interwar Germany as well as by Alfred Stieglitz’s understanding of the medium as high art, played a prominent role in Zionist photography following his immigration to Palestine. His project documenting the Yemenites’ adaptation to their new life resulted in a photographic album for Schocken Verlag, but in 1938 the Jewish publishing house was closed down by the authorities before the book could be printed.

The Lost Album contains a complete facsimile of a recently identified mock-up of Rosner’s book – all of his full-page high-quality images, as well as the German and English captions he gave to his photographs. It is introduced by Yudit Caplan’s curatorial essay, which also sheds light on the history of photography in the land of Israel during the pre-State period, notably the efforts to document the Zionist enterprise, and the visual culture surrounding the figure of the Yemenite Jew. In his empathic photographs, Jakob Rosner expressed his artistic sensibilities and his Zionist idealism, his affection for the Yemenite community and his awareness of its struggle to survive and succeed under challenging circumstances.

Date of publication: 2024

Number of pages: 172 pages

Dimensions: 18.5X18 cm