Portrait of Hannah Arendt

Alfred Bernheim specialized in architectural and portrait photography. Bernheim was born and raised in Tiengen, Germany, later attending art school in Pforzheim and studying under the Bauhaus cinematographer Walter Hege. With the rise of Nazism in Germany, in 1934 Bernheim left Europe and immigrated to Jerusalem, where he opened a photography studio. In Israel, Bernheim pursued a successful career as a professional photographer. He became the official photographer for the architect Erich Mendelsohn, who designed several famous buildings in Israel, and he made portraits of prominent Jewish cultural figures, including Israeli president Chaim Weizmann and philosopher Hannah Arendt. Bernheim was recognized as a master photographer; his images have been exhibited at both the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.