'WHAT MAKES A PEOPLE SURVIVE?': DENVER PHOTOGRAPHER'S EXHIBIT ON ORTHODOX JEWS OPENS FRIDAY

"Buying Shabbat Flowers"

"Williamsburg Street Scene #1"

The question that kept recurring as he photographed Orthodox Jews across America was this, Bernard Mendoza says: "What is it that makes a people such as the Jews survive? Is there an answer?"

His very contemporary photographs illuminate a culture in which many of the bearded elders are Holocaust survivors and little girls wear skirts 9 inches below their knees. The traditional dress is one means of maintaining control over their values, Mendoza says, but he thinks it goes deeper.

"Someone asked if I think there is such a thing as a Jewish soul," he says. "... I think that's part of the answer."

Mendoza will attend the reception Friday when "Bernard Mendoza: Orthodox Jewish Series Photographs" opens at Gallery 100. The reception will be held from 5-8 p.m. at the gallery, 119 Independence St.

Mendoza also will discuss his work from 3-4 p.m. Friday at the Kent Library Little Theatre on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

The majority of Mendoza's 48 black and white images will be on display at Gallery 100. The remainder can be seen at the University Museum. Until now, the show has been exhibited as a work in progress. This is the first showing employing the final master prints.

The prints are from his photo-documentary "From Generation to Generation," which honors the Jews who started a new life in America after the Holocaust and also pays tribute to the work of Dr. Roman Vishniac. Vishniac photographed Jews in Poland and Austria just before the Holocaust to produce "A Vanished World," a documentary that inspired Mendoza's own.

The English-born Mendoza was a commercial photographer paying the bills by taking pictures for Chanel and Clairol when he had an epiphany of sorts.

"I happened to be taking free shots for a Jewish charity," he said, "and I realized I had never taken pictures for myself. I had always done commercial work."

Like Mark Twain before him, he wondered why Jews have had such an impact on the arts and sciences. He decided to document the lives of Orthodox Jews in America.

Mendoza, who is Jewish, had a circle of Orthodox Jewish friends who opened doors for him into a society he says can be suspicious of outsiders. "It's a little bit like the Indian tribes that have been exploited," he said.

Traveling between New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Denver, Mendoza photographed Orthodox Jewish weddings, funerals and everyday life.

Modesty is one of the laws of Orthodox Jewish life, but Mendoza finds irony in the traditional dress. "You don't make yourself stand out in a crowd," Mendoza said. "But the modesty itself stands out."

Part of the funding for the project came from a very famous source -- filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Spielberg created the Righteous Persons Foundation from the proceeds of "Schindler's List." Another funding source was the Colorado Council of the Arts.

To be present at the reception is important to Mendoza. "My work is very personal to me. Whenever I can I like to be there and to speak to people and answer their questions," he said.

If Mendoza thinks there's a Jewish soul, he's also sure there's a Catholic soul and a Buddhist soul. "I think everybody has a real feel, an identity with their soul," he says. "It draws them."

But the answer to the question of why the Jews have been able to survive is left to the viewers of the photographs themselves, he says.

"As a documentary-maker, my job is to open doors to people so they can find their own answers."