Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia

View artwork »

View exhibitions »

View videos and articles »

Visit our Information Center to browse the artist file »

David Rubinger, Israeli, born Austria, 1924-2017

David Rubinger was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1924. His father, a native of Galicia, was a scrap merchant. In his youth he was active in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. When the Germans entered Austria in 1938, his father was sent to a concentration camp but was finally released and received an entry visa to England. Toward the end of 1939, Rubinger immigrated to Eretz Israel as part of Youth Aliya and was sent to Kibbutz Beit Zera. After a few years he moved to Kibbutz Tel Amal (now Kibbutz Nir David). In 1942, he joined the British Army and served in the Jewish Brigade. In 1945 he began to practice photography as an autodidact. In 1946 he returned to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. In the War of Independence he served as a platoon commander in Jerusalem. At that time, he began publishing photographs in the newspapers Davar Hashavua and HaOlam HaZeh. Between 1953 and 1951 he was a photographer for the editorial board of HaOlam HaZeh. Between 1970-2010 he was a photographer for Time magazine and Life magazine. The archive of his photographs is in the possession of Yedioth Ahronoth.

Awards And Prizes

1982 Enrique Kavlin Prize for Life Achievement in Photography, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1997 Israel Prize in Communication