Félix Bonfils & American Colony Photo Service PHOTOGRAPHS... Lot 6

Félix Bonfils & American Colony Photo Service PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE HOLY LAND BY BROTHERS GABRIEL AND ABRAHIM DABDOUB, BETHLEEM-JERUSALEM, CA. 1900 Carved wood binding, 32 x 24 cm, calligraphic title page, 47 albumen prints (approx. 28 x 22 cm) captioned in German, French or English, 37 signed in the American Colony negative, and 10 signed by Félix Bonfils. Several photographers, assistants and technicians were involved in the photographic activities of American Colony during the company's existence. Not all of them have been identified and it is not always possible to know who was behind the camera. In its early years, the company was run by Elijah Meyers, an East Indian Jewish immigrant and Christian convert, a friend of Russian Jewish photographer Yeshayahu Raffalovich. Meyers was joined in the photographic enterprise of the American colony by Fareed Naseef, whose Christian Lebanese mother was also part of the American colony, as well as the American brothers Furman and Norman Baldwin, and the young Swedes Erik Lind and Hol Lars (Lewis) Larsson.