The Mikvah Project
Do you all know about the Mikvah Project? When I first saw the photographs I was in love. Although the idea of looking at images of other women using the mikvah was jarring, considering the degree of tzniut we usually try to preserve, for me the photos really do capture something of the poetry I feel in those moments under the water -- which is part of what made me want to write about mikvah, too. But I must say, I'm a lot less excited about it now that I find out they used models!
I suppose I should have realized, right? Orthodox women, for example, would never agree to pose nude, whether or not their faces were showing. And it's not that I object -- I'm all for people using the mikvah once even if they never plan to go again; I don't mind people making up their own "purifying" rituals that may have nothing to do with normative Judaism; I don't even have a problem with non-believers using the mikvah. But still, for me, it takes something away from the viewing to know that many of these people probably didn't really get what mikvah was about. It's not just about being naked underwater, although that can be profoundly affecting. It's not just about the mystery of something larger than yourself; there are plenty of mystical rituals in other religions, and I don't consider them interchangeable. It's about Gd -- our Gd -- isn't it? Or at least, about connection to the centuries of Jews who did this because they believed in Gd... and if you don't believe that Gd commanded this, or even leave a question in your mind open to that belief, are we even having the same experience?
So to be clear, I don't object to their using models, or to the models using the mikvah. And it's clear from the rest of the project that they wanted it to be as authentic as possible, but for the photo part that was just an impossibility. Still, I see myself in those photographs less than I did before I found out. I'm wistful about that, because mikvah is such a private, maybe even isolating practice. I know intellectually that I share it with many other women, but it was nice for a moment to feel it was shared.
I guess it goes back to the whole nature of this observance, and the question of what we're trying to accomplish by writing about it here. Can an experience so private really ever be conveyed or understood? Should it be?
Comments
I guess I just assumed the photos were models from the start. I love the photos, and actually, the photos are what partially inspired my psuedonym, "from Beneath the Surface."
I like to think that the artists explained the mikvah and the purposes of the photos to the models, so they had some sense of why they were in the water. It makes the project seem more special to me.
I don't know if our individuals mikvah experiences can really be understood. Each person has such different experiences. And I know, in my case, my feelings about and reactions to mikvah have changed so much in just a year - sometimes better, sometimes worse, so I guess I would never really be able to completely convey my feelings. And I doubt I could ever get anyone to understand - sympathize, probably, but truly understand? Probably not.
Wow. And I was getting close to actually buying the book, too. It loses a lot of meaning to me, knowing that the photographs were staged.