האחים חנקין: זיכרונות מקבילים

Evgeny and Yakov Henkin: Images of Memory

Curator: Raz Samira

This is the Henkin brothers' first exhibition in Israel. It is accompanied by a comprehensive bilingual Hebrew-English catalogue—the first major publication about their work in both languages.

Born in Rostov-on-Don in southwest Russia to a middle-class Jewish family, brothers Evgeny (1900–1938) and Yakov (1903–1941) Henkin were amateur photographers who worked in parallel in Berlin and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

Evgeny Henkin left the Soviet Union for Berlin in 1925, where he pursued his passion for the performing arts, particularly music, and ventured into experimental art. His lens captured scenes of bourgeois tranquility, but also hinted at a darker reality: anti-Semitic graffiti on Jewish storefronts, a campaign poster from Hitler's party ahead of the 1933 elections, children playing under the Nazi flag. His images reveal a deep sensitivity to the aesthetics of modern space, not only as a physical record, but as a cultural stance. Evgeny returned to the Soviet Union in 1936. Arrested during Stalin's Great Purge in late 1937, he was sentenced to death, executed in January 1938, and buried in an unmarked grave.

Yakov Henkin was active in the Soviet Union at a time when Socialist Realism dominated the arts, celebrating workers, farmers, and soldiers, and promoting industrial, agricultural, and social achievements. His intimate photographs offered a quiet alternative to the state-controlled public discourse, providing an authentic, human view of life under the regime. A recurring motif in the brothers' work is the documentation of sporting events—an integral part of the modern zeitgeist. In 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Yakov volunteered for the Red Army. Wounded on the Leningrad front, he died of his injuries, and was buried in a memorial cemetery on the city's outskirts. The Henkin Brothers' photographs and distinctive perspective reflect a search for humanity in a disintegrating world.