Irene Fertik

Irene Fertik is a community artist, teacher, and photographer whose work has appeared in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and books. Her collection of photographs contains images of New York City in the decade from 1967 to 1977 (Black construction workers of all trades, Black theater, Black dance, jazz, civil rights activities, other aspects of Black life and culture), Israel, (kibbutz life, 1967-1968); Ethiopian Jews, 1992-present), and Los Angeles (amateur athletics, 1986; artists involved in community-based art projects, 1988; portraits of Black photographers, 1966). Her collection of photographs taken by seven Los Angeles-based Black photographers between 1949 and 1970 is one of 3 grants done in LA. Another is the first year of The Amateur Athletic Association grantees - young community sports teams in southern CA. Since 1992 she has been to Israel 14 times working on a book project documenting the lives of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Her project is entitled From Tesfa to Tikva, and will be published by 2012. She continues to have exhibitions of this work around the United States.