Portraying Joburg’s Jewry in all their variety

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

Landsman (Yiddish for someone from your same town; a fellow Jew) is on exhibition at the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town.

This body of work, depicting images of Johannesburg Jewry in all their different guises, is a departure from Shoul’s usual subject matter.

How did this exhibition come about?

“Obviously, I went through the conversion with my wife, and I was looking for another project,” he says. “It just so happened that I was introduced to things and meeting amazing people, which made me think I should not focus on ‘the other’ – as I’ve done in the past – but rather, on my backyard.”

There have been challenges, he admits. “Shooting your own images can be tricky because you’re critical of, as well as interested in, what’s considered to be connection.”

 “Some of it is very familiar, some not at all to me,” he says, adding that while shooting, he began to see the community from the perspective of what he calls “a potential outsider”.

“It was inspired by what I went through during the conversion … whether it was me starting to do things that I would never have done in the past, such as keeping Shabbos, learning Gemorrah and going to classes three or four nights a week.

It woke me up to the amazing cross-section of people who are in a community like Johannesburg. I realised that there isn’t just a rubber stamp that every Jew is the same, a lot of non-Jews think.”

The show is a very personal undertaking, which Shoul, who specialises in portraiture and documentary photography, describes as a work in progress. “It’s an amazing community that I’m part of. However far I go from it, I know that that’s where I come from, that’s my tribe.

“A lot of those who appear in the body of work are people I know well. Some of them are part of my West Street shul in Johannesburg; others I’ve come across and found interesting.

“When doing a project on the inner city some years ago, I was fascinated by the Torah Centre in Yeoville, which still exists today, and by this one guy Tony, who keeps it all together, as well as by the calibre of people there.”

Most of the images are captured in people’s homes or private spaces.

Originally from Port Elizabeth, Shoul was schooled at Theodor Herzl. “We are part of a great community that has always welcomed us and been amazing to us from the start of our process.”

But the community is certainly not homogenous and to describe it as “Orthodox” is just too simplistic, he concludes.

He recalls showing somebody the images, which include white and black subjects, and having to counter the following attitude: “The person questioned how black people fitted into the portfolio, asking if they were domestic workers. They are, in fact, fully fledged Jews.

“The Jewish community in Johannesburg isn’t just your Chai FM listener. There are 50 000-odd people making up the community and they’re involved in different aspects of living in South Africa.” This, he says, is the idea underpinning Landsman.

He makes mention of Jewish people who prefer to “cocoon” themselves in suburbs like Glenhazel. “It works for some. We have a culture in this country where like stays with like.”

As for the images themselves, one is of a lad from a religious school who used to walk around encouraging individuals to put on tefillin near Shoul’s office in Norwood. “I thought it was amazing that these guys did this. Sadly, they stopped.”

Another features Aharon, the grandson of “a great, great man”, Basil Cohen, a friend of Shoul’s. The photograph was taken during the shiva week for Cohen.  

 “A lot of his grandchildren are very religious and when I saw this kid, who is so different from Basil, I thought there was something there that I could capture.”

Another image, pictured above, is of Tammy, who attends Shoul’s shul and is married to a friend of his. His aim in photographing this heavily pregnant woman was to portray the cycle of life and the continuity of the Jewish community in South Africa.

• Landsman runs at the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town until the end of March.