The Archive of Photographer Nachum Gutman – More than 20,000 Photographs and Approximately 95,000 Negatives which ...

The Archive of Photographer Nachum Gutman – More than 20,000 Photographs and Approximately 95,000 Negatives which Constitute a Large-Scale Documentation of Israeli Politics, Society and Culture during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – Photographs from the Six-Day-War and from the Yom Kippur War, of Israeli Leaders, Public Figures and Intellectuals, and More
The archive of press photographer Nachum Gutman, which contains more than 20,000 photographs and approximately 95,000 negatives. [1960s to 1980s].
Nachum Gutman was born in 1934 to a Hassidic family in Debrecen, Hungary. During World War II, he was sent to the Bergen Belzen Concentration Camp and after his release, abandoned his religious lifestyle. At the age of 14, he immigrated to Palestine by himself with the Youth Aliyah, settled in Kefar Saba and earned a meager living as an apprentice to an ironworker. He became a press photographer merely by chance, in the late 1950s, when he found out that a group of swimmers he had photographed in Ramat Gan was involved in a diplomatic incident. His photographs were published in the newspaper "HaOlam Hazeh", causing a scandal and paving his way to the press. In the following years, Gutman became a sought-after photographer, one of the "home-photographers" of the Mapai Party, and a well-known photographer in the IDF units. During the 1960s, he established the Newsphot photographic agency, which was responsible for several famous photographs of the Six-Day-War. Gutman himself arrived at the Suez Canal together with the Israeli forces. Six years later, when the Yom Kippur War broke out, he was again sent to the southern front and this time, joined the forces that reached the Egyptian side of the Canal. His good relationships with political leaders and with the army enabled him to take pictures of various political and military leaders during public events and private moments – Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon during the Yom Kippur War, David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula, Menachem Begin with his family and many others.
Gutman was also dedicated to documenting the cultural life in Israel and was involved in its Bohemian scene. He made his first acquaintance of several prominent Israeli culture figures at the Tel Aviv café "Kasit". He recalled the way he succeeded in advertising himself as a photographer among the regular customers of the café in his book "From a Different Angle" (Hebrew. Tel Aviv, 1998): "Whenever I went to Kasit, I asked my secretary to call the café from time to time and ask for the press photographer Nachum Gutman. Chetzkel, the owner of Kasit, or one of his waiters would call out 'Nachum Gutman the photographer, a phone call!', I used to shout back that I was busy photographing […] gradually, all the patrons of the café knew that I was a press photographer and the offers began flowing in". During the late 1980s, Gutman opened a photography shop in Tel Aviv and stopped working as a press photographer. The decision to change careers was explained by him thus: "As a press photographer I always strived to take those pictures that could replace 'a thousand words'. I always tried to make my pictures the best. I always wanted them to express in the most impressive manner the subject of the picture… the click of my camera needed to create the picture that was different from the pictures of other photographers… in tandem with my desire to achieve those special photographs, I also strived to publish my photographs before any other photographer… However, over the years, I started feeling a certain fatigue. I stopped feeling the desire to continue the never-ending chase after those special photographs… and to pay the price… I did not retire completely from the field of photography… it seems that someone who has been bitten by the photography bug will never really heal" (From a Different Angle. Tel Aviv, 1998. p. 240).
This archive contains a documentation, remarkable in its scope, of a variety of aspects of Israeli life over close to three decades – most of Gutman's career as a press photographer.
The archive includes:
• Photographs documenting Israeli leaders, politicians, public figures and rabbis, in their private and public lives – David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Moshe Sharet, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yigal Alon, Yigael Yadin, Yitzhcak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, Abba Eban, Dov Yosef, Rabbi Amram Blau (during a visit to an archeological excavation site), the rabbis Isser Yehuda Unterman and Aryeh Levin in the company of Menachem Begin, and many others.
• Photographs documenting political and topical events, including: photographs of demonstrations from across the political spectrum (the Black Panthers, demonstration of the Maki party, demonstration of Haredi Jews in protest of the bill on the subject of "Who is a Jew", rally of Siach attended by Dan Ben Amotz, and more); a tour of Moshe Dayan, Teddy Kollek and the "Rishon LeZion" Yitzchak Nissim in the Old City of Jerusalem after the Six-Day-War; Teddy Kennedy's visit to Israel; visits of diplomats and leaders from all over the world; funerals of public figures (Levi Eshkol, Paula Ben-Gurion and others); and more.
• Photographs documenting the Israeli wars, IDF soldiers and armed forces, including numerous photographs documenting the Yom Kippur War (the crossing of the Suez Canal on the pontoon bridge, IDF soldiers om the west bank of the Canal, Moshe Dayan visiting various units, Chief of Staff David Elazar, the commander of the Southern front Chaim Bar-Lev, Ariel Sharon, and others); photographs documenting the conquest of Jerusalem in the Six-Day-War, IDF soldiers entering the Temple Mount and the Western Wall; IDF trainings, parades and aerial demonstrations on Independence Day, many photographs of the Israel Police, and more.
• Photographs documenting public figures and events from the fields of Israeli art, culture and show business, including: photographs of cinema (film screenings, film festivals, the actors of the movies "Exodus", "I Like Mike", "El Dorado" and more, some of them on set); photographs of stage and theater artists (among them Hana Rovina, Arik Einstein, the "HaGashash HaChiver" trio, Shaykeh Ophir, Giddy Gov, Shlomo Artzi and Rivka Michaeli); photographs of writers and intellectuals (a group photograph of Nathan Zach, Yehuda Amichai and David Avidan, and photographs of Nathan Alterman, Uri Zvi Greenberg and others); photographs of models and fashion shows; and many photographs of sports competitions (football, volleyball, swimming, fencing, and more).
• Additional photographs, documenting daily life in Israel.
Many of the photographs are stamped on verso and some are hand-signed by Gutman. Several pictures were taken by other photographers.
The photographs are arranged in more than a hundred boxes, organized by subject (and alphabetically ordered). The photographs are accompanied by the original card catalog that was used by Gutman.
Alongside the photographs, the collection also contains approximately 95,000 negatives. The negatives represent the variety of photographic subjects, enriching the documentary material of the collection.
Size and condition vary.