Israel Schmuklerski

Place: Strasbourg

Born: 1871

Death: 1956

Biography:

Helmar Lerski was a Swiss photographer born in Strasbourg, France in 1871. He was born Israel Schmuklerski and his family moved to Zürich, Switzerland in 1876 where they were naturalized. In 1888, Lerski emigrated to the United States and worked as an actor. He began to photograph around 1910. In 1915, he returned to Europe and worked as a cameraman and expert for special effects for many films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis. At the end of the 1920s, he made a name as an avant-garde portrait photographer. In 1932, he emigrated with his second wife to Mandate Palestine, where he continued to work as a photographer, cameraman, and film director. On 22 March 1948, they left what was by then Israel and settled again in Zürich, where he died in 1956.