Tel-Chai Nation

I found this Jerusalem Post article from last month about a religious fashion photographer working with model Chrissy Teigen, who sure is perpetuating the ill-advised image of Orthodox adherents as unable to deal with the non-modest:

[Tal] Abudi is based in Tel Aviv but works regularly in New York and Los Angeles, and – unusually for the world of high fashion – is a religiously observant Jew. He has said in interviews that he will only photograph models who are dressed in a modest way – as Teigen was in the images.

“I don’t see myself as some kind of genius, I just know that God blessed me with photography skills,” Abudi wrote on Instagram more than a year ago. “My main goal in ‘publicity’ is that I am able to empower the issue of modesty. From the moment I realized that this is the profession I have chosen for myself, I felt that maybe I could make a difference, and change a certain perception.”

“I truly think that a woman is more beautiful when she’s wearing modest clothes,” he wrote. “When I see photos of the models I photograph in international agencies, and their head shots and portfolios are all in modest clothing, it shows me that when the photo is strong, there is no need for revealing clothing.”

Oh, for heaven's sake! What good does this do? Does he really lack confidence in himself to avoid viewing a woman only as sexual if she's not dressed modestly? I'm sorry, but I decidedly can't appreciate his laughable vision, which only makes observantly Orthodox, as I'm sure his leanings are, look like nervous nillies turning to moral panics. What isn't clear is whether he's a Haredi, but even if he's not, his example is still not a good one.

It's entirely possible to view a woman in a non-sexual way even if she's not modestly dressed, and also entirely possible to recognize that sexuality is not an inherently bad thing. That photographer, unfortunately, hasn't proven he's capable of understanding that.

Labels: Israel, Judaism, Moonbattery, United States