Purim 2020
With the first fears of coronavirus permeating New York City, the theme for Purim this year was “Prayer and Purell”. There was a tangible anxiety in the air leading up to the holiday. But on the streets in South Williamsburg that day, feelings of uncertainty and fear were trumped by the spirit and tradition of Purim. Appreciative and humbled by the opportunity to access the notoriously closed-off Ultra-Orthodox community, I embarked on a mission to capture both the beauty of their traditions as well as the friction of those very customs against the current landscape. I was swept away and transported to a different world by the costumes and revelry, but what I was really interested in was what was beneath their disguise. There was something honest, joyous and at times mischievous radiating from the participants and that's what I wanted to capture.