Seventy smiling Jews

Photographer Hannah Pinnick writes about her current exhibition at Free Range, The Old Truman Brewery, 81 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL:

‘As my final degree project while studying Photography at Ravensbourne University,

70 Smiles [Jews of London] is a positive affirmation of Jewish identify and captures the infectious power of the smile.

‘As well as wanting to create a striking series of well-photographed high-definition portraits, I wanted to capture the life and positivity of our community.

‘I wanted to produce a body of images showing happy, smiling, positive, upbeat, Jews of all ages to represent the contemporary community of London Jewry. The images include children, teenagers and adults, some born in the UK, some refugees, some Israelis living in London, some religious and some not so observant, intellectual and cultural, inquisitive and nonchalant and a Holocaust survivor.

‘The Talmud explains that smiling at someone is an even higher form of charity than giving of your time or money because a smile will enhance the recipient’s well-being on every level of body and soul.

‘Why 70? To mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of the modern state of Israel and because the number 70 has deep biblical roots, appearing several times in the Torah.

The exhibition opens today and continues until July 2