Where can you go in Los Angeles to witness Jews from all over
the world performing centuries-old traditions and celebrating
life-cycle events? Just venture a little ways up the hill from UCLA
to the Skirball Cultural Center’s exhibit of Zion
Ozeri’s photography, “Portraits of an Eternal People: A
Jewish Family Album,” and you’ll find them.
This 50-piece black-and-white photo exhibit in the museum lobby
is a pictorial meeting place of different people from around the
world, bound together by their common faith, culture and
history.
An Israeli-born photographer of Yemenite heritage who now lives
in New York, Ozeri has traveled around the world, capturing images
that simultaneously depict the diversity and similarities of an
entire people.
Ozeri’s photography exhibit spans the globe ““
including images from North Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia,
South America, Israel and Yemen ““ yet many individual
pictures are unified in common subject matter.
For example, “Simchat Torah” depicts a bustling
Moscow synagogue, while in another work three Jewish men are
“Waiting for Seven Jews” in an almost-empty Tunisian
synagogue so that they can have the mandatory 10-person minimum to
begin daily prayers.
Some of the exhibit’s most striking photographs illustrate
Jewish ritual. From an Indian bride waiting for her henna tattoos
to dry, to schoolchildren “Welcoming the Sabbath” in
Zimbabwe, and U.S. troops holding Friday night services in
“Basic Training,” Ozeri captures the breadth of
distinct ways Jews celebrate a common religion and culture.
While a picture may be worth a thousand words, the word count on
some of Ozeri’s works increases two-fold as the
photographs’ titles poignantly expand the image’s
meaning. Titles such as “Yemenite Gothic” add a
laugh-out-loud touch to a work showing an elderly couple and a
pitchfork, and “Waiting for Seven Jews” provides
important context as to why the three men pictured are not yet
engaged in prayer.
Just as any family’s photo album tells the story of a
group and its members’ relationships to each other,
Ozeri’s photographs bring to life the ritual and routine of a
faith’s smaller factions scattered across the world,
collectively bringing viewers the big picture.
“Portraits of an Eternal People: A Jewish Family
Album” runs through Aug. 31. For more information, go to
www.skirball.org or call (310) 440-4500.