Marc Alan Jacobs is constantly playing Spot the Jew. “Sometimes I’ll go in real close and see if they are wearing a chi or a Star of David. There are certain facial features or hairstyles people associate with Jews, but it’s a look that actually may or may not exist.”
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As an artist Jacobs is interested in the unconscious assumptions people make about identity based on real or imagined physical characteristics. “I was thinking about this scrutiny that goes on within and outside of the Jewish community and other groups, where people are always trying to spot each other out. Is he Jewish or not? Is he gay or straight?”
Friends encouraged Jacobs to issue Jews of the 60s, 80s, and 90s postcards, but he worried that nostalgia for the 70s was obscuring his message. So he asked ten Jewish friends to submit ordinary posed snapshots of themselves captioned with their names, occupations, and hometowns. He then assembled the photos into a book that appropriates the format of souvenir picture books found in vacation spots. “Those books categorize one specific thing and try to document it with very minimal information in a format that you can carry around with you in your pocket.”
