Roth is an internationally acclaimed photographer, photojournalist, ethnographer and portraitist. For over five decades she used her camera to effect change for women who may not otherwise have been seen. She is best known for her work making visible the diverse lives of Jewish women around the world.
This exhibit, Jewish Women: A World of Tradition and Change, brings to life the mosaic of diverse Jewish women who lived in Ethiopia, Bukhara, Ukraine, Yemen, India, Morrocco the US and Israel in the 1980s – 1990s. This was a unique time in history when a closed world opened up. Roth traveled during this period, discovering and exploring a rarely seen world of Jewish women. She pioneered telling their stories through a gendered lens. Many of these Jewish communities made aliyah to Israel and their diaspora communities are disappearing if they still exist at all.
This exhibit provides a peek into Roth’s historical collection of images and stories of the strength and beauty of Jewish women worldwide. It shows women inside their traditional homes, in the workforce, and carrying out Jewish rituals – baking challah, serving in the army, lighting candles, performing and more. Her photographs capture moments in their lives and make them visible for the world to see.
Joan Roth has made a distinct impact on the lives of women while cementing her place in a line of photographers who have used film to create art with a conscience.
“Joan Roth has the gift for seeing the significant moment, the meaningful gesture, the fleeting look which conveys an in-depth character, a lifetime of experience, an entire culture….Joan’s gaze is a female gaze which penetrates below the surface to the essence of women’s lives, it is a feminist gaze which does not objectify but rather empathizes, sympathizes, identifies with the subjects of her work.” Alice Shalvi, an Israel Prize-winning educator and pioneering religious feminist.
Special thanks:
Melanie Roth Gorelick
Drora Arussy
Shira Gorelick
Alison Roth
Pamela French
Bob Lizza of Lizza Studios
