The Upsherin Ritual and The New Year for Trees

Most people are familiar with the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, but less commonly known is the festival of Tu B’Shevat – the new year for trees, which takes place on the 15th day of the Hebrew lunar month of Shevat which in 2023 falls at sunset of 5th February till the evening of Monday … Read more

Red Flow

A couple of weeks ago I had a dream which I only recollect in part. On waking the overwhelming feeling I was left with was a moving experience of emotional connection. In the dream I remember seeing a group of women all dressed in red, Handmaid’s Tale-style. I was with another woman from one of … Read more

Woman at a dressing table

The images in this post have been selected around the themes of sitting at a dressing table, looking into a mirror and applying makeup. Firstly here are a couple of portraits I took of my mother from a project I did at college in the late 80s: In the next photo I appear in the … Read more

Old Family Photographs – posing with vintage cars and other wheels

I’ve gathered together some old family photographs that all, with the exception of the final image, predate my birth. In these photographs the cars and other forms of transport are integral to the photograph, they are not just part of the background. My parents and relatives wanted these objects to feature and be recorded. The … Read more

George Michael’s Memorial Garden in Winter

December 25, 2017 – Christmas Day – marks one year since singer George Michael died. A few days ago I went to visit his memorial garden in Highgate which is in a small green outside his former home. I had visited this garden at the height of autumn and was curious to see it in … Read more

George Michael: George’s Garden in Autumn

I walked through Highgate the other day and spent some time in the memorial garden for the late George Michael who died on December 25 of last year. The garden is in the small green bordering his home on The Grove. Here are some photographs I took at George’s Garden, which is lovingly tended by … Read more

Purim 1984 in Hendon

I’ve been sorting through boxes of old photographs and came across a series of images I took back in 1984 when I was in my 20s. I had decided to revisit my old primary school, Hasmonean on Shirehall Lane, Hendon. It was and still is a small Jewish primary school, established in 1947. My purpose … Read more

Purim, ritual and ancestry

Out of all the Jewish festival and holidays, Purim, which begins this evening, is one which resonates with me fondly. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the original story of Purim took place in Ancient Persia, apparently in the 4th Century BC.  My family originally hailed from Mashhad in Iran, so there is a … Read more

My dad before I knew him

In today’s Guardian newspaper I was reading an article in the Books section in which writers, inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Before You Were Mine, reflect on photographs of their mothers before they were born. This is connected to the theme of Mother’s Day which happens to fall tomorrow, Sunday March 6. March 6 … Read more

Ancestry & Ritual: Persian Jews in 1950s London do Christmas lunch …

When my father died I made sure I kept his old box of loose, predominantly black and white personal photographs. I found them more interesting than the bound albums which had more formal, traditionally “presentable” images often taken at weddings and bar mitzvahs by commercial photographers or selected posed photographs on holidays and birthdays.  Here … Read more