(Ecns.cn)--In 1922, a 20-year-old Russian named Sam Sanzetti arrived in Shanghai empty-handed. 35 years later he left for Israel, carrying in his suitcase some 20,000 photographs he had taken during his career. Today, after another 54 years, some of those pictures have finally made it back to Shanghai, where they are bringing faded memories back to life.
Sanzetti's Shanghai portraits were rediscovered after his death in 1986, according to the China Daily. His stepson, who lives in Israel, has asked for help to identify the subjects in the photos and to find their children, so that copies can be presented to them.
"His stepson said Sanzetti loved his time in Shanghai and hoped the photos could come back to the city," said Oren Rozenblat, deputy consul general of Israel in Shanghai.
The Israeli Consulate has so far posted more than 200 of the old photos on its Sina weibo in the hopes that netizens will identify the subjects.
"By unveiling the pictures online, we hope people can identify them and tell us the stories behind the photos," Chen Yuan, the consulate press officer, told Beijing Today.
Talented photographer
Sanzetti was born as Sioma Lifshitz to a Jewish family and moved to Shanghai with his parents in the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution.
Pan Guang, director at the Center for Jewish Studies Shanghai, revealed that Sanzetti had apprenticed under an American photographer before setting up his own studio in the 1920s on Nanjing Road, then the busiest commercial street and the hub of photo studios in Shanghai.
Sanzetti, dubbed one of the best photographers in China at the time, had made his name among all manner of people, including celebrities, film stars, young couples and children.
His portraits, with natural expressions, soft color, pastel shades and simple backgrounds, are like oil paintings. Without color photography, Sanzetti also sometimes tinted monochrome pictures to make the images more vivid.
Sweet memories
According to the Shanghai Daily, the Israeli Consulate had tracked down four Shanghai people featured in some of the 200 pictures by November 12.
Hong Luoxia, now 74, is one of them. She still clearly remembers the day in 1954 when she was photographed as a 17-year old, excited after receiving her first ballet costume.
"I was a high school student dressed in my first ballet costume. When walking past the studio, I decided to capture this beautiful moment," she told the Shanghai Daily.
"He encouraged me to dance and took many pictures of me," Hong noted, adding that Sanzetti's studio was classic, and "different from other photo shops in Shanghai at that time, while the prices were only slightly higher than others."
