Micha Kirshner’s contribution to Israel’s photography scene is evident in several spheres: press photography, teaching photography, and photographic discourse.

Kirshner belongs to a limited group of Israeli photographers who studied photography abroad in the 1970s, returned to the country towards the end of the decade, and radically changed the face of photography in Israel. They brought with them recognition of photography as a profession, with its own predecessors and history, and laid the foundations for shaping the place of photography as an artistic discipline that is equal to all others. From among this select group, Micha Kirshner led the establishment of press photography, and particularly magazine photography, as a valued field with its own qualities and features. Looking back, it is evident that his accumulating photographic endeavors (first at the “Monitin” journal and subsequently at all the newspapers and magazines where he worked) proceeded to set the high standards of press photography in Israel.

His work for “Monitin” (from 1979 to 1988) was a pioneering effort in all respects: professional, creative, meticulous, involved, current, and daring. He moved among innovative fashion productions and photographed prominent cultural and political figures. It was on the pages of “Monitin” that Kirshner’s photographic language became crystallized: on one hand aesthetically meticulous, with a unique style, and on the other up-to-date, assertive, maintaining a sense of political and social commitment. That photography as a tool makes a statement even when displayed on glossy pages, was a big revelation at the time. The late Adam Baruch called it an “art chronicle”. The collaboration between Adam Baruch, editor of “Monitin” at the time, and Micha Kirshner, was undoubtedly one of the most creative and meaningful local collaborations in the encounter between visual art and current affairs.

The recognition of Micha Kirshner as the father of modern Israeli press photography is no exaggeration. He integrated into photography staged self-conscious components with a statement, and he had a clear impact on both press photographers and photographers active in the artistic domain. Those who transitioned to work as press photographers – Alex Libak, Miki Kretzman, Pavel Wolberg, Assaf Evron, Sharon Bareket – and were gradually embraced by the art world, owe this relatively smooth transition to Micha Kirshner’s movement between the two worlds – press and art, appearing regularly in the newspapers and presenting regularly at art exhibitions in museums and galleries. Another group of photographers, who created staged photography and operated on the dividing line between reality and fiction (from Adi Nes to Ohad Matalon or Anan Zuckerman) also owe an aesthetic and fundamental debt to Micha Kirshner’s photography.

Because on the fundamental level, Micha Kirshner’s photographs laid the foundations for the widespread philosophical debate regarding post-modern photography – the tension between truth and fiction. His staged photographs, which were featured in the press, undermined the customary perception of press photography as a documentary and thus were realistic and generated a discourse on the truth of photography.

I find that at present, with the decline of the printed press and the threat to the very existence of press photography as a distinct discipline, it is particularly important to focus attention on the work of Micha Kirshner. He transformed the newspaper pages into an exhibition space and the readers into viewers, building an impressive, high-quality, and relevant body of work that is not reluctant to touch upon sensitive and painful issues within Israeli reality.

The other field where Kirshner’s presence and influence are evident is that of teaching photography. Returning to Israel, he was among the founders of the Department of Photography at the Hamidrasha School of Art (then in Ramat Hasharon, now at Beit Berl), an act with deep meaning in a field previously perceived as marginal, negligible, and not “artistic”. At that time, the school was led by teachers from the disciplines of painting and sculpture who were skeptical regarding the capacity of photography to become the artistic equivalent of other more established media. At present, of course, photography is an inseparable part of the curriculum at this and other art schools, so much so that it is hard to remember how different things were only three decades ago.

Kirshner’s presence as a teacher at Camera Obscura, and in a more partial capacity at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and the Sapir College, and particularly since 1997 at the WIZO Haifa Academy of Design and Education, was extremely significant. He transformed the photography department at WIZO Haifa Academy into one of the top and most valued departments of photography in Israel, with an updated and dynamic agenda. Thus, he helped strengthen the status of the Haifa Academy.

In the late 1980s, Micha Kirshner was among the team that initiated and curated the first biennale of photography, displayed at the Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod in 1986. The first biennale and the two subsequent ones (1988, 1991) had a very significant role in establishing photography as a medium with equal status to other disciplines. The fact that the biennale had no sequel was perhaps the best proof that its purpose had been achieved: it was no longer necessary. Photography gained a presence in galleries and museums and in the 1990s and 2000s photographers were recognized as conspicuous Israeli artists. Micha Kirshner – photographer, teacher, and journalist – certainly had a crucial role in this development.

Ruth Direktor, 2011