Chris Marker: The Lost Photographs of Israel

This exhibition presents still images of Israel from 1960 captured by the Frenchman Chris Marker, one of the postwar New Wave’s most original and influential directors. Photographed from Eilat in the south up to Kibbutz Manara in northernmost Israel, they were taken in preparation for a new type of documentary film about the young country. The film, Description of a Struggle, achieved renown – but the photographs vanished. A few years ago, more than 1,000 negatives from this project were discovered in the archive of the French Cinematheque; some 120 of them have been printed for the exhibition and are displayed here for the first time. Images of everyday scenes and ordinary people, they convey the same insightful humanism that Marker brought to his film.

The artistic power of Description of a Struggle, the first documentary about Israel produced by private individuals rather than Zionist institutions, earned it a Golden Bear at the 1961 Berlin International Film Festival. Today, its poetic and almost prophetic acuity is more striking than ever.  

Deconstructing the film into the photographs that served as its basis launches us into a kind of time travel to a distant, almost forgotten era. Along with the stills, visitors are invited to view Description of a Struggle in its entirety and listen to the voice-over, a signature feature of Marker’s films. The exhibition also explores its resonance in Israeli culture via two other landmark works: In Jerusalem (1963) by David Perlov – whose oeuvre left an indelible imprint on local documentary filmmaking – and Dan Geva’s Description of a Memory (2006), a visual interpretation of Marker’s film that was enthusiastically approved by the French director.

In addition, the exhibition presents rare archival material that sheds light on how the film came to be, as well as on its reception in Israel and abroad.

Chris Marker, French, 1921–2012

Ilana Steinitz (Richardson) in an art class, Haifa, 1960

Digital print from original 6x6 negative

La Cinémathèque française, Paris

Chris Marker, French, 1921–2012

Ghislain Cloquet, who filmed Description of a Struggle, atop Manara Cliff, Upper Galilee, 1960

Digital print from original 6x6 negative

La Cinémathèque française, Paris

Chris Marker, French, 1921–2012

Be’er Sheva, 1960

Digital print from original 6x6 negative

La Cinémathèque française, Paris

Chris Marker, French, 1921–2012

In the Hula Valley, prior to filming a scene for Description of a Struggle, 1960

Digital print from original 6x6 negative

La Cinémathèque française, Paris

Chris Marker, French, 1921–2012

Looking into a mirror at the van Leer home in Haifa, Chris Marker takes his self-portrait – the only one he ever published, Haifa, 1960

Digital print from original 6x6 negative

La Cinémathèque française, Paris