“In My Eyes, Each Photograph was a Masterpiece”. Construction of children's photos in a family album on kibbutz in Israel

Abstract

This article explores the process of the creation of photographs on kibbutz through a case study of one nuclear family living on kibbutz in Israel. It examines the process of construction of photographs in the private family album of the nuclear family in relation to the public forms of documentation on kibbutz. The article explores to what extent the photographs enabled the family to express their individuality in kibbutz society, which was self-governed by a socialist, egalitarian ideology. It examines the influences of the childhood photographs of the mother, who joined the kibbutz as an adult, on the construction of images of motherhood in her private kibbutz photo album. It investigates the way in which the construction of private photographs in one family album contested dominant mythologies on kibbutz at that time.