Jewish Woman of Safed Whitewashing Her Home in Preparation for Pessah

Luciano Morpurgo was one of the most important Italian photographers of the twentieth century. Born in Split, Dalmatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), into a prosperous commercial family, he was educated in Venice. While studying there, he became interested in photography. In 1915, he moved permanently to Rome, where he eventually founded a graphic arts company that produced postcards of Italy. Photographs from his 1927 journey to Palestine and Trans-Jordan captured the lives of ordinary Jews, “simple folk” from communities that often attracted little attention.