What do you feel when you look at this photo?

When I facilitated a seminar on LeatherJews at "Horizons 2000: the 16th World Conference of GLBT Jews", I brought a portrait-size print of this photo. I asked that question of the participants, who talked about their shock at seeing the juxtaposition of leather boots and tefilin, about the erotic ambiance they felt, etc. Then I asked them,

"What is the person in the photo feeling?"

The answers to that question were very different. They spoke about the picture's inherent spirituality, about the calm integrity of the subject.

The participants in the seminar learned that they look at LeatherJews through a curtain of their own feelings, but the lives and experience of Jews in Leather are not constrained by other people's assumptions. (For more about the seminar click on Horizons seminar.)

Bob is a gay Orthodox Jew living in New York City.  This photograph, titled "Bob/Yehuda" was taken by Mark I. Chester.  Mark is also hosting this website.

And here's Bob as you might see him
on the streets of New York City.

Bob © by Mark I Chester