Guidalevitch, Victor

Victor Guidalevitch was born in Simferopol, Russia in 1892. He moved to Belgium and became a civil engineer and important amateur photographer, living and working in Antwerp where he was a member of the avant-garde group, Iris. It was not until about 1950 that his work was taken seriously and Guidalevitch was considered an important photographer. His subject matter was broad, and so was his style of shooting, ranging from pictorialist to modernist. His work appeared in many of the photography publications of the day, including the Salon International d’Art Photographique de Paris, Photograms of the Year, Die Gallerie, etc. He is listed in most of the photographer databases, including the George Eastman House database and in Auer & Auer. He is also listed in Georges Vercheval’s Pour une Histoire de la Photographie en Belgique. Some of his images had many of the qualities of a Dutch still life painting. See: Gruber and Gruber, “The Imaginary Photomuseum”, for an example of his work, as well as Claude Magelhaes & Laurent Roosens, “Fotokunst in BelgiÎ, 1839-1940”, 1970, Het Sterckshof, Antwerp. He died in Antwerp, Belgium in 1962. His work is included in the collections of the Worcester Art Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and many other institutions. His work is very scarce and quite collectible.