Suschitzky is interested in the face, eyes, nose and lips of the person he photographs, and perhaps in the occasional hand holding a cigarette or a child’s small fingers disappearing into a little mouth, as if forever. He does not distinguish between the famous and the unnamed. The furrowed face of an old woman wearing a headscarf displays the same poise as the perfectly lit portrait of Hilde Spiel, a lock of hair rakishly combed across her face. Living in London with her then husband, Peter de Mendelssohn, and daughter in the late 1930s, the Austrian writer and her family became close friends of the photographer.
Suschitzky shows British leading man Michael Caine, an expert in displaying his face, in profile, taking an intense drag from his cigarette during the filming of Get Carter. Mike Hodges’ film is now a modern classic, something that can hardly be said of Sands of Beersheba: “I worked on a film in Israel for an American, who wanted his wife to be a film star. The film never saw a cinema, I believe. In Jaffa I saw a group of Bedouins. They permitted me to take pictures of their wonderful faces.”While these embody a century-old history and culture, the carefree face of the young Israeli production assistant clearly stands for the spirit of optimism characteristic of the country’s new generation. Often, those portrayed return the photographer’s gaze, be it renowned British actress Virginia McKenna (“the most beautiful woman I had ever seen”), the lady in Trinidad, who still looks a little sceptical after Suschitzky won her trust by having tea with her, or Guy, the gorilla.