PICTURE THIS: JEWISH REP

Working on a Jewish newspaper, illustrating articles about Jewish life, you need to be ingenious, knowledgable and eagleeyed. Because so very often the pictures on offer are not what you want — and that can create problems.

Is that some cheese on a plate with the meat? Why is that photo agency tagging pictures of bread for Passover? And why, so often, is the default picture for anything Jewish, male, dark-clothed and bearded?

I used to work for a photo agency, and we saw many pictures of Buddhist monks. It was as though every young photographer learned their craft by heading for Thailand or Nepal and photographing as many saffron-robed holy men as they could. Many of the pictures were stunning. Many of the monks did fabulously photogenic things (taming tigers, building monasteries from old bottles). But after a while, we were sick of Buddhist monks. And we knew we could not sell an infinite number of pictures of them.

So, too, with Charedi men. Yes, they are fun to photograph, with their furry streimels, and flying peyyot. But they are a visual cliché. It is time for pictures which give a far more nuanced and accurate view of Jewish life.

This initiative gives us great pictures of Modern Orthodox women. It fills in many gaps in the variety on offer from other stock libraries. Now we have pictures of Jewish women learning and praying, working and exercising. We have some festivals covered, and others I am sure will be on the way (Chanukah, quickly please!).

As the collection grows, I’d love to see tasteful images to do with the Jewish ways of mourning. More please for bar and batmitzvahs. More pictures of women in synagogue, more candle-lighting, more to do with dating, engagements and marriage. Cleaning for Pesach? Playing kalooki? All Jewish life should be here.

I hope that BritishJewish photographers will get involved too, so we see some backdrops that are recognisable. Jews selfcatering in the Cotswolds… Jews supporting Spurs… Jews catching the Northern Line!

It would be great to have a Progressive version of this photobank. The more variety the better, to illustrate the diversity and depth of our many different lives.