Unique Item: "Life's Work" of the Veteran Photographer of Chareidim. Millions of Photographs of Rabbis, Including ...

Unique Item: "Life's Work" of the Veteran Photographer of Chareidim. Millions of Photographs of Rabbis, Including Copyright

Archive of the veteran Chareidi photographer, R' Baruch Ovitz, considered the founder of rebbe picture collections. The archive consists of hundreds of thousands of printed photographs and millions of photographs stored on CDs photographed by R' Baruch Ovitz spanning his approximately fifty year photographic career. Unique opportunity never before seen, and not likely to ever be seen again.

This archive includes all aspects of Chareidi public life in the past fifty years. There was not a single Chareidi public event in recent decades, large or small, at which Rabbi Baruch Ovitz was not present. Who doesn't remember him, with his pointed beard and his distinct velvet cap, energetically jumping from corner to corner using the lens of his camera to immortalize sublime moments for generations, whether a grandiose event such as the Siyum HaShas, the demonstration of the million against the Supreme Court, or the Satmar Rebbe's visit to the Land of Israel; or relatively minor events such as Admo"r's weddings, Chassidic tischen, and even non-events such as the Admo"r strolling in Neve Kayit during bein hazmanim, or on his way to the mikveh on just a regular weekday.

Nowadays, when even little children have their own cameras and almost every mobile phone can take photos, this may sound trivial, but when Rabbi Baruch Ovitz started fifty years ago, photographs were still taken in black and white. Even the not so old among us remember the 24-photo and the 36-photo films, which, until less than twenty years ago, were the common method of photography, especially in the Chareidi sector. Each picture was significant; it could not be viewed immediately after the photo was taken, only after it was developed in special photo shops, and it could not be deleted, like today.

This archive can easily compete with the largest databases in the world, even outdoing 'Google' in this niche of rabbinical photos. In addition, one of Rabbi Baruch Ovitz's iron principles was, as he stated in an interview conducted by the BaKehilah newspaper (published posthumously on 24 Sivan 2019): "As soon as I started photographing, I set clear boundaries for myself. I never take pictures of women. I also don't permit my photos to be uploaded to internet sites or non-religious newspapers. I don't care if I lose money, I have principles!" Although quite a few photos of rabbis can be found on the internet, the archive photos here are unique. This is apart from the fact that Rabbi Baruch started his photography career decades before the internet was even extant. It is important to note that this archive is being sold together with the copyright for the millions of images it contains.

The numbers: The archive contains 69 boxes of printed photographs, multiplied by an average of 3,828 photographs in each box, for a total of 264,132 printed photographs [taking a conservative estimate that about half of the photographs being duplicates, this is still more than 120,000 original printed photographs!] In addition, the archive contains another 33 boxes of CDs, twice the average of 377 CDs in a box, multiplied by an average of 742 images per CD, is 279,734 photographs per box, multiplied by 33 boxes, for a total of 9,231,222 photographs stored on CDs [a conservative estimate of fifty percent duplicates here as well, although it is certainly much less, works out to the unbelievable number of four to five million photographs].

The magazine BaKehilah brings an anecdote in the aforementioned interview, which illustrates the power of this archive, writing: "By any measure, Rabbi Bram Ovitz is a 'phenomenon' in the Chassidic courts. "There are many Chassidic courts today for which I have been the photographer for four generations. There are some Admo"rim whose great-grandfathers I photographed, " [R' Baruch Ovitz] says with a smile. "The first time I photographed the Admo"r of Rachmastrivka, " says Ovitz, "he looked at me with an expression full of humility. He said to me: R' Baruch, you took pictures of my father and my grandfather, how is it that you take pictures of me as well ...' I also have a beautiful photograph that I took at the Admo"r of Nadvorna's bar mitzvah. You can see four generations of Admo"rim of Nadvorna in that photograph. I have many pictures of the Admo"r Rabbi Itamar. All this was back in those years.''

This is the life's work of a veteran Chareidi photographer, who, had he not been taken by a serious illness at a relatively young age, this would not have been offered at auction at all. This archive encapsulates the story of Chareidi Jewry in the Land of Israel over the past fifty years, and in fact the entire Chareidi story, so that even if the internet were to be abolished one day along with Wikipedia, this archive would still give the 'full picture' and tell the entire story of the revival of the Jewish settlement of the Chareidim in the Land of Israel after the Holocaust. This is not an archive destined to one day find its place in one of the museums - it is a museum in itself - the "Museum of the Chareidi Community in the Land of Israel."

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the photographer Baruch Ovitz.

[69] boxes of printed photographs multiplied by 3823 photographs in each box, a total of [264,132] printed photographs.

[33] boxes of CDs x [377] CDs per box multiplied by [742] photographs on each CD, a total of [9,231,222] photographs.

These amounts are estimates.

Overall Very fine condition.