Thursday, March 6, 2014

What I Be: Jews of New York

Thursday March 6, 2014

one of the photos from the gallery


For this weeks blog about Jews around the world I was assigned the controversial art exhibit called “What I Be: Jews of New York” in Brooklyn’s Mister Rogers gallery. The art exhibit shows the work of Steve Rosenfield, a California based artist. He created this exhibit to share his own insecurities. With this project he was able to photograph people from all walks of life and encourage them to open up about their own insecurities.  When he decided to work with the Jews of New York some very controversial issues were brought up. Originally, Yeshiva University was supposed to be at the gallery but pulled out last minute. In the orthodox community many issues are not spoken about so for people to express their insecurities or experience lead to a lot of controversy on the art exhibit.


Personally I love photography and as an artist I really admire and appreciate the photos taken by Steve Rosenfield. I don’t care what religion or beliefs you have. You, as a community, need to be supportive of the people in your community and not shun them for how they are feeling or what they are going through. I know when I am dealing with an issue I look to my friends in my community for advice. I therefore can not even imagine what they are going through. I am ecstatic that Steve Rosenfeild opened this can of worms and hopefully the Jewish orthodox community will come live in this century.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with you when you say that it is really admirable what they are doing with the pictures. I know that whenever I have problems, I also like to take them to my community, especially my friends in my community. I know if we had a program like this where I lived, I would definitely participate because it is just such an amazing thing to be so comfortable with your community as to post your feelings publicly.

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  2. I like how he encouraged them to speak out about their insecurities. I think that the first step to feeling better about yourself and having more self confidence is accepting that you are not perfect, but you are who you are and that is the best you can be. Once you accept that then I feel like you don't really care what anyone else thinks of you.

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