Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Born in Jerusalem on 28 May 1943; started working at the Photo Yergatian shop in Jerusalem at the age of 13 and soon became a skillful photographer; had his first photography assignment for local newspapers in 1958, aged 15, when he was sent to take pictures of the arrival of the UN Sec.-Gen. Dag Hammarskjold at the Qalandia Jerusalem airport; also spent much time in Photo Yergatian’s darkroom to prepare films from Iraq for the newspapers (reporting about the Iraqi-Jordanian coalition); began experimenting with color printing, in which he soon also gained proficiency; moved to work with Photo Roxy in the Christian Quarter of the Old City in late 1958; at the same time, became the official photographer of the King of Belgium during his visit to Jerusalem; joined Photo Deyana, where he also began developing color slide films, for which Deyana was the only lab in the area at the time; opened – with his brother Mardo – his own shop in 1960 in Jerusalem, photographing, among others, for the Time life and Newsweek magazines, as well as the construction work undertaken on Dome of the Rock; won many prizes in a worldwide photography competition by Kodak Eastman; became the official photographer of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in 1961 and the official photographer of Pope Paul VI on his visit to the Holy Land in 1964; also filmed movies and traveled a lot, collecting one of the largest photo achieves of the Holy Land, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, and many other countries; his photos have been used in numerous books and he has provided the photographs for some 25 illustrated books, incl. Jerusalem, City of Jesus (Richard M. Mackwoski, Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1980), Living Stones Pilgrimage With the Christians of the Holy Land (Betty Bailey/Allison Hilliard, Cassell, 1998) and Bethlehem 2000: Past and Present (Mitri Raheb/Fred Strickert, Palmyra Verlag, 1998).
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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