The Mikvah Project
“The Mikvah Project”–a traveling collection that originated in Houston in 2000–is centered around the Jewish ritual of the mikvah: renewal through total immersion in “living water.” Photographer Janice Rubin depicts men and women, young and old, Orthodox and nontraditional; Leah Lax’s wall texts (based on interviews) give the reasons behind the practice. Historically it’s been a ritual imposed on women to cleanse themselves after menses; some have called it regressive, repressive, or flat-out misogynistic. The project sets out to address the multiple issues–historical, spiritual, and personal–that circulate around the practice of total immersion, often debated in both religious and feminist circles: how can such a seemingly archaic custom continue to hold sway?
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Two photographs taken outdoors create an even greater sense of contact with the natural and spiritual than the indoor shots. In one, a woman chest-deep in a pond moves toward trees lining the opposite bank. Small patches of sunlight fall through the canopy of leaves and reflect off the water’s surface. The rings from her steps move away from her body and begin to merge with the ripples in the water’s surface, bringing all elements of the scene together. In the other outdoor shot a woman swims toward the camera. Her body, the splash of her entry, and her overhead reflection–which make up the only white in the frame–mark the moment of immersion, of separation from the everyday world. Her eyes are closed, and she reaches forward, fingertips turned up slightly. The water is almost invisible, except for the ripples that mark her dive. She hovers between the surface and the lake’s floor, quiet after her entry, moving ahead without seeing, yet calmly.
