Benyamin Reich

The pictures from the series "Judaica" by Benyamin Reich deal with objects that have religious significance for Jews. For example, Challah, the traditional bread eaten on the Sabbath, is presented here as a still life. Uncoupled from their religious context, these objects take on an ethereal life of their own and appear simultaneously strange and familiar.

"The camera has helped me to separate myself from the world of my parents. It helps me to visualize from a distance things with which I am actually already very familiar. Conversely, the gaze filtered by the camera allows me to get closer to the orthodox world, which has always been very foreign to me. For me photography is like looking into a mirror that reflects both an inner and an outer world. (Benyamin Reich in the catalogue for the exhibition "How German is it? 30 Artists' Notion of Home")

Benyamin Reich was born near Tel Aviv in 1976 and has been living and working in Berlin since 2008. The artist's website can be viewed at www.benyaminreich.com