A permanent photographic exhibition at the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem tells the story of 1927 Palestine. The pictures of daily life in this land during the British Mandate are the work of the great photographer, Luciano Morpurgo, whose collection ‘Palestine 1927’ comprises over 200 photos. Morpurgo, born in Split from an ancient Jewish family, writer, photographer and publisher, suffered the effects of the racial laws in Italy. The photos on display at the Consulate are a selection of the most representative pictures taken by Morpurgo, who arrived in Palestine in the spring of 1927 with geographer Alberto Almagià, finding a land inhabited by a variegated humanity that struggled to survive in environmental, social and economic conditions that were undoubtedly grueling. Morpurgo’s photos are at one and the same time objective and subjective views of that difficult and complex reality: his focus, which is often mainly ethnographic, is divided between showing how the local populations lived and testifying to the coexistence of the different communities.
The photos, a generous donation by the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, are of considerable importance for their historic and cultural value. They offer an image of the region that shows evidence “of a period where people lived in mutual tolerance”. They also portray, without rhetoric, the hopes, tensions and contradictions generated by the proximity of peoples that are so different. The human component (Christians, Jews and Muslims) present in Palestine in the Twenties -documented in a frank and immediate way by Morpurgo – reflects the intention of rediscovering the common roots of the three great monotheistic religions and propels the hope for peace into the future.
