Noam Oster
Orthodox Boys
Portraits
Comic-Con, Straight Up! for i-D
Nudie Jeans
About
Photographed in 2025–2026, Orthodox Boys is a documentary project photographed in Hasidic neighborhoods in New York and London, including Crown Heights, South Williamsburg, and Stamford Hill. Combining formal portraiture and candid images, the work observes daily life within an insular religious community. The project is punctuated by images of the Passover ritual of burning chametz on the morning before the holiday, marking the removal of leavened grain from the home.
“I first encountered the ritual of biur chametz in 2023 and recognized its visual and symbolic density: fire consumes and transforms. The burning of chametz functions as an expression of riddance, not simple disposal. The burnt material becomes unrecoverable, aligning physical destruction with spiritual intention. Fire, here, operates at a smaller register, where larger questions of creation, divine judgment, and transformation are embedded within a material act, an annual ritual repeated in perpetuity.”
“I first encountered the ritual of biur chametz in 2023 and recognized its visual and symbolic density: fire consumes and transforms. The burning of chametz functions as an expression of riddance, not simple disposal. The burnt material becomes unrecoverable, aligning physical destruction with spiritual intention. Fire, here, operates at a smaller register, where larger questions of creation, divine judgment, and transformation are embedded within a material act, an annual ritual repeated in perpetuity.”