Nachim (Nachum) Chefez, the son of Litmann Leib and Gittel Chefez, married Lea Leah (Lotte), née Heller in March 1901. He was a well-known and respected photographer in Vienna with a garden studio at Taborstraße 41 in the 2nd district opened in 1900. In 1913 he became a member of the Photographische Gesellschaft in Vienna and participated in numerous photography exhibitions, including the Sonderausstellung für Photographie in 1912 as part of the Kind und Kunst exhibition, the exhibition in 1922 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Photographische Gesellschaft and in 1928 the Fachphotographische Ausstellung des Fachverbandes der Photographengenossenschaften Österreichs. He published his works in specialist and photography magazines such as Der Bund, Photographische Korrespondenz and Radio Wien and also used the photogravure technique. He lived with his family close to the studio at Taborstraße 48a. Because of his Jewish origins, he was persecuted by the Nazis after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. His studio was closed by order of the NSDAP on 11 November 1938 during the November Pogrom and Aryanized on 23 December 1938 by the photographer Alfred Hofer, member of the NSDAP since 1931 and working as a photographer for the headquarters of the Flüchtlingshilfswerk in Berlin and Munich since 1934. The expropriation was carried out by the Arisierungskommission der Wiener Fotografenzunft after having been administered temporarily by the photographer Gustav Nohynek. The record of assets was drawn up by Egon Jelinek, head of the Fotografeninnung (photography guild) and the evaluation by the photographer Fritz Lanzenstorfer. After fleeing with his family on 16 July 1939 to the USA, Nachim Chefez lived in New York until his death in 1963. The large archive of negative photographic plates in his studio was expropriated and its whereabouts today are unknown.

From the project Durch das NS-Regime aus Österreich vertriebene und ermordete Fotografinnen und Fotografen und der Verbleib ihrer fotografischen Sammlungen (Subsidized by the National Fund of the Republic of Austria. Conducted by Walter Mentzel).