Chasidic Jews in New York


  • Photographer
    Luc Kordas
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    March-June 2012
Story

Chasidic Jews in New York




New York like no other is a city of contrasts of all kinds. Surely, one could say the same thing about so many other cities in the world, but the Big Apple is indeed a unique mixture.

This series of photographs focuses on the neighbourhood of southern Williamsburg inhabited by Chasidic Jews. I was interested to see how such a traditional and conservative community coexists in XXI century with the rest of New Yorkers and the city itself. The Jews are not an easy subject to photograph and I liked that challenge. While working on this project, I was also lucky enough to take part in a historical jewish convention on the matter of internet which took place at the Citi Fields Stadium in New York in May. Some 40,000 men gathered to discuss how to use modern technology in a religiously-appropriate way and I was there to witness it. I photographed Williamsburg on many occasions, in sun, rain, during the day or at night. Meanwhile I was also keeping an eye on the pulse of the neighborhood by reading local magazines. That's how I found out about a “bicycle” conflict between the Jews and hipsters living in the northern part of the neighborhood. While working on this long term project I realized that as the time passed I cared less and less about the photographs and more and more about the people. I simply wanted to get to know them better. And that, perhaps for the first time in my life, justified photography as such for me. It was a tool I used not the goal itself. In the months to come I would like to have an opportunity to get a deeper perspective on this project simply by getting closer to the people and hence understanding better their environment and themselves. And also show them perhaps that the reason why I am photographing them is that I want to get to know them better.

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