Leora Laor

Wanderland

Leora Laor's images depict street life in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea She'arim. By enlarging the pixels of her digital images, taken at a considerable distance from her subjects, Laor intensifies the strangeness and mystery of her scenes, which evoke an earlier era. Her pictures of young girls and women invite the viewer into a world of ancient beliefs and rituals. This is a community that chooses to live apart, detached from the outside world, emulating the European shtetl. It is also anti-Zionist, opposed to the existence of the State of Israel. Displaying great sensitivity and restraint, the artist has mediated between the inner spiritual world found in this Orthodox section of Jerusalem and the surrounding secular environment.

Leora Laor (born 1952) lives in Tel Aviv
"Wanderland", 2002-2004 (Gelatin silver prints/Digital lambda prints)
Courtesy Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York