After teaching in a Jewish day school for many years, I wanted to finally become a full-time professional photographer. I asked everyone around me for leads. 

Zeeva, an old college friend I had met at Tel Aviv University, put me in contact with Kiddushin Photography, a Jewish wedding photo studio in Brooklyn. Her daughter had a friend whose father was a booker there. 

A few days later, I took the BQE to Ocean Parkway, then to Avenue P, deep in Brooklyn, for a meeting. While I was talking to the studio owner, Nate, Julia walked in, their best “lady photographer”. Because Hasidic weddings are segregated by gender, only women are allowed to photograph the women's side. She said she needed an assistant. That’s how it all started. 

I worked with Julia for a year, and at the end, I had a notebook filled with detailed information: diagrams of every hall we went to, the placement of their electrical outlets, the entrances with the ramp and the elevator; and notes on light and camera settings.

One day, the studio called me desperate for help. They had a wedding in Lakewood, New Jersey, and no one to photograph it.

Immediately I bought four light stands, four Dynalites and a ladder, and jumped into the world of Hasidic wedding photography.

These stories are an answer to the never-ending questions I get when showing pictures. 

Tell us more, most people say. Why this, why that. 

I am no expert but I am a witness and one with a very privileged point of view to one of the most important events in Jewish life.