Family-friendly Art Workshop
More Than Just a Face: Making portraits with photographer Hillary Goidell
Photo by Deborah Cohan
Art workshop with photographer and 2024 LABA Fellow Hillary Goidell
Jewish Arts and Bookfest
Sunday, May 3, 2026
at UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Presented in partnership with JCC East Bay and LABA Bay Area.
A good portrait doesn’t just reflect someone’s image, it also resonates with their unique spark. In this photography session, we’ll explore ways to make portraits with our phones that honor B’tzelem Elohim, the Jewish idea that each of us was made in the image of the divine. Together we’ll seek out ways to imprint inner landscapes as we photograph old or new friends and loved ones.
Ages 8 and up. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Limited to 5 parent/child pairs.
About Hillary Goidell
Hillary Goidell is a photo-based artist whose work centers on the body, individual and collective, and considers the complexities of its form, incarnations, and constant recalibrations.
She collaborates with choreographers to document bodies in movement and narrate the emotional and physical labor of dance-making, extending this observational practice by writing and performing creative audiodescription. On a broader scope, her photography explores human fault lines at the intersection of strength and vulnerability like illness, end of life, and gestures of care.
She has brought image-making into her work across disciplines, from her field research in anthropology to creative production and teaching. In turn, these foundations along with decades living in France solidly inform her thinking and process.
About LABA Bay Area
LABA BAY AREA is a laboratory for Jewish culture and a program of the Firehouse. It is part of an international collective of LABAs, all of which use classic Jewish texts to inspire the creation of art, culture, conversation, and community. The program began in 2007 at the 14th Street Y in New York City (LABA NY), and now has hubs in Buenos Aires (LABA BA), the Bay Area (LABA BAY), and Berlin (LABA BE). LABA BAY AREA was formerly LABA East Bay, and a program of the JCC East Bay. LABA presents Judaism’s rich literary and intellectual tradition in a free and creative setting, so that these fertile stories and ideas spark new thought and creative work. The output from our laboratory hubs push the boundaries of what Jewish culture can be and what Jewish texts can teach.