Tim Gidal

1909–1996

Tim Gidal (né Nahum Ignaz Gidalewitsch) was one of the founders of modern photojournalism. Born in Munich, the son of East European Jews, Gidal was a Zionist from an early age. When he received his degree from the University of Basel in 1935, he moved to Mandate Palestine. Struggling to make a living as a photojournalist there, he left for Britain. After two years there, he returned and joined the British army as a photographer in 1942. After the war, he moved to the United States, where he worked for Life and taught at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 1968, he moved to Zurich, and in 1970 he returned to Jerusalem, where he lived until his death.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Night of Meron

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Gidal began his career as a photographer at a time when the invention of lightweight cameras enabled a more spontaneous type of documentary photography. Photographers could now double as journalists…