From Self­ie to Groupie is a book of pho­tographs and essays explor­ing the vari­ety and intri­ca­cy of Jew­ish-Amer­i­can iden­ti­ty by Ali­na and Jeff Bli­u­mis. The pair began their visu­al sur­vey in the Russ­ian-Jew­ish immi­grant enclave of Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach before expand­ing to the wider Jew­ish-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty in loca­tions from New York to Philadel­phia, Mia­mi, Sono­ma Val­ley, and St. Paul.

In total, 1,922 peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ed in cre­at­ing a por­trait of the com­mu­ni­ty — in its many shades, shapes, and sizes — and a col­lab­o­ra­tive state­ment about col­lec­tive iden­ti­ty. Par­tic­i­pants ranged from a two-year-old girl who iden­ti­fied her­self as a ​“future pres­i­dent” to vice pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Joseph Lieber­man, who iden­ti­fied him­self as ​“a proud and grate­ful Jew­ish Amer­i­can.” The book includes per­son­al essays by David Shneer, Anya Ulinich, Joshua Elli­son, visu­al data analy­sis by Jenya Gor­bat­se­vich, and a his­toric essay by Kon­rad Bercovici.

The pub­li­ca­tion has been made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Gen­e­sis Phil­an­thropy Group. 

Read Ali­na Bli­u­mis’s Posts for the Vis­it­ing Scribe

Address­ing the Amer­i­can-Russ­ian-Jew­ish Iden­ti­ty Cri­sis, Cam­era in Hand

Pho­tograph­ing a Por­trait of the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Community

Turn­ing a Visu­al Project into a Book