A reflection: Jewish Diaspora in Carlisle Street, Balaclava 2006 - 2008

This series of photographs is the culmination of a research project undertaken over a two year period (2006-2008), which investigates the contemporary Jewish Diaspora with a focus on the cultural conditions of identity, lifestyle and ritual. These photographic images explore the microcosm of this minority social group within one geographically contained locale, Carlisle Street, Balaclava. For the past fifty years there has been a relatively high concentration of Jewish residents living in this area; however, both the street and the local neighbourhood are currently undergoing changes that reflect the more recent Jewish and non-Jewish migration patterns and a younger more affluent generation are moving into the surrounding areas.

My photography-based exploration concentrates on the intersection between identity and place in contemporary multicultural Australian society, and articulates how one minority community is currently responding to global, national and internal pressures towards cultural, economic and socio-political homogeneity. The images reflect on the connections between the Jewish identity of Carlisle Street, and the cultural changes that are taking place in the street such as: the changing nature of the shopping precinct, the type of people populating the street, the use of the street and the effect this has on the social conditions of identity, lifestyle and ritual. The photographic overview of the contemporary streetscape provides an illustrative case study of broader processes of immigrants building a community. Carlisle Street with its established institutions, services and shops, all meeting the particular ethnic needs of a diverse range of migrant communities is an example of a streetscape where Jews have imprinted their unique, albeit multifaceted, identity. Here, the expressly particular group needs of both secular and orthodox Jewishness is expressed in the street through artefacts, symbols and signs.