Tzniut

As a child, I wondered why my father walked a few steps ahead of me, or why we women sat at the back of the temple. These customs led me to question my place as a woman and the meaning of Tzniut, the Jewish tradition of modesty and privacy.

I was born and raised in Argentina in a family of Arab Jews. Tradition and culture were deeply woven into my upbringing, alongside a persistent questioning of my place as a woman. In Orthodox Judaism, Tzniut refers to modesty, dignity, and restraint. It is closely tied to privacy, expressed in practices such as married women covering their hair.

For years, I photographed backs, obstructed views, and empty spaces without fully understanding why. Only later did I recognize how closely these images echoed my childhood memories: my father's retreating figure and the covered hair of religious women. These were not simply subjects in front of my camera, but fragments of a visual language through which I remembered and understood the world.

The project explores the intimate lives of Torah-observant women and their relationship with faith, tradition, and the domestic sphere. Through subtle gestures, headscarves, reflections, and everyday details, I seek to approach their world and understand what privacy means within it, without intruding on what is meant to remain private.

Between the distance shaped by tradition and my own search for a place within it, the photographs inhabit shadows, oblique views, and partial glimpses. They explore the delicate boundary where restraint and intimacy meet, and where concealment can hold both limitation and beauty.