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For the past four years Andrew Aitchison has been living and working amongst the Ultra Orthodox Jewish Community of Stamford Hill, London. A community that live in a very separate yet so similar to a ‘normal’ British Society.
This set of images show an honest reflection of a community that is often perceived to live in a closed, insular world. Andrew’s work tackles the air of mystery surrounding this community and provides a deep insight and explanation into their every-day lives, rituals and practices.
This community in North East London has the biggest population (approximately 25,000) of Chareidi Jews in Europe all living, working and praying within two square miles.
This body of work began on the streets of Stamford Hill photographing the holy days and festivals that take place throughout the year. He built up friendships and working relationships with key figures in the community that gave him access into exceptional circumstances never usually witnessed by outsiders. He began to learn about what the Holy days mean and of all the customary rites of passage that come with growing up in the Ultra Orthodox world.
Once he began to visit different people within the community he started to understand the ethnic groups that occur within and worked with each group on aspects of their daily life and the extraordinary events that takes place when a spiritual Rebbe visits, things not normally portrayed in the mass media.
This close-nit community is rapidly expanding with the average family having 7 children. There have been discussions in recent years to one day move the community to a new location near Milton Keynes. Life in Stamford Hill could never be the same again.
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