Sara’s Bat Mitzvah

Sara’s Bat Mitzvah is a large-format photographic work that brings to light the spectacle occasionally immersed within the suburban landscape. By working through the traditions of straight photography, the conceptual elements of the composition are explored in the meticulous depiction of a scene—that of a stilt walker waving to a vehicle, directing passers by towards the #partyoftheyear—Sara’s Bat Mitzvah. Whether it is a coming of age ceremony or a fully-fledged over-the-top celebration, there is a cultural tradition of thinking up the most impressive and creative ways to eclipse the last (party). The arrow pointing down the road, off camera into the distance, mimics Sara’s future. She has taken her mitzvah vows and been declared a woman in the eyes of her family, peers, and community. In this work, Isaac Thomas extracts the nuances from his own personal encounters of the everyday and depicts them in an aesthetic value in which religious and cultural traditions are practiced in the twenty-first century. Thomas’s interest in debuting this work in the Lightbox Project Space is to frame this tableau in homage to the rich tradition of straight conceptual photography that has come into prominence through the Vancouver School.