Bringing History Alive, Cincinnati's Synagogues

By combining the past with the present, I’m reintroducing these former synagogues of Cincinnati, Ohio. Each composition begins with a contemporary photograph of the building, or if the building has been demolished, the location of where the building once stood; these location photographs are shown in color to illustrate the present. The exact location was determined by creating overlay maps of the downtown and the West End, this helped determine the spot where each the buildings once stood. Several of the extinct locations were on West End streets that were demolished to make way for I-75. I choose to use long-exposure digital capture as a method to illustrate the long-time periods represented in each photograph and as a vehicle to connect the past to the present. The historic images, all shown in black and white or sepia tone, represent the past. By showing the architecture and people from the years that the synagogues were in use, I strived to bring the viewer back to a certain time period listed in the titles of each composition. During an extensive search for images at local temples, libraries, personal archives and individuals’ homes, I was able to find historic photographs of people that had a connection with these early congregations.