Yet another documentary photographer! Michael Macioce is a photographer from New York who got his start photographing the NY music scene in the 80s. He has gone on to photograph Europe, old toys, and the Jewish community. What drew me to his photographs is the quality of the photographs. The majority of his work has an old feeling to it with the grain and type lighting. His work reminds me of someone like Eugene Atget, working in the late 1800s to early 1900s, instead of someone working within the past 20-30 years. The photograph from above is from his series called Jewish Rituals. For this series he spent a lot of time in a Jewish community documenting the traditions that they practiced. I was drawn to this particular photograph because of the dramatic light that is given by the candles and the expressions on the little girls' faces. The angle that this photo was taken has the viewer pretty much at eye level with the girls which gives the feeling that the viewer is also a child standing around the candles. The curious/rebellious expression on the faces gives me a sense that these girls are not quite sure why they do the things they do for each tradition but that they are just following suit. As children we usually copy what our parents, family members, or friends do because we feel that it is the "right" thing to do and not because it is what we want to do.
I really enjoyed looking at Macioce's work and I would recommend looking at it too.
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