66 Comments

• wonderment

  why aren’t the second group of pictures part of the competition? some of the picturs in that group are amazing.

• anonymous

  These pictures are gorgeous :) I am very impressed. Keep up the great work. It is so hard to choose. Each one deserves my vote. Kol Hakoved to the teacher involved.

• Chaim Perl Fan

  This is brilliant. gr8 way to bring kids positive energy aside from basketball during recess… All pics are amazing!!!

  Chaim Perl, u did it again!!!

• mmm

  you can vote for best photographer, the best pictures are seperated thats all

• dovid ellezry

  im judging by the photographer bc there are so many great shots by one of them i think he deserves it.

  but wowowow to all
  these kids are liike only bar mitzvah its great

• cg

  Great photos, it is almost impossible to choose the best one!
  All the boys deserve a prize!! Keep up the good work

• R-Chayim Perl-s Greatest Fan!!!!!!

  Make way for photographers of the future, thanks to R’Chayim Perl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Thank you so very much for what you have done for your students: for having instilled in them the love for learning through curiosity, creativity and originality.

  Rabbi Perl, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making my son feel special, capable and self confident, in so many ways!!!!!!!!!!.

  Hashem should bentch you in “alleh inyonim”.

• A fan

  Chaim and Darchei Menachem – you did it again!

  You found a kosher outlet for the boys creativity, and inspired them to use their talents.

  Yasher Koach.

• nechama

  wow! i’m so impressed with your work bertchie!! beautiful photos!

• admirer

  yay leibel! you are taking after your father and grandfather! so talented!

• confused...

  im trying to vote but it says its not available…so im just gonna vote here…i vote for sholom ber aronow his pix are AWSOME!!!!

• C. Cohen

  Nice Job Boys! Keep up the good work. I vote for #3 Yehuda, looking up that tree was fun.

• Baruch C.

  Photo #3 by Yehudah Leib Cohen is awesome! Looking at it make me feel kind of like I was the other player in the game.

• I vote for all of them!

  They are all very good! I Don’t know which to vote for

• Wish I could take pics like these!

  Wow!!!! Amazing photo art!!! Some of the pictures are really incredible – you would not think they were taken by teens and younger! Are these taken with their own cameras or does Chaim lend his own professional one?

• nice

  In the future, please leave the names out, so that we can judge only according to the merits of the photograph, without subconscious bias for the names we know.
  Then, you can later post another article including the names (and the winner), for interest and acknowledgment.
  They are quite impressive and creative.
  Thanks.

• uh oh not another popularity contest.

  Shouldn’t have put the names of the boys together with the pics cuz now it will basically be whichever boy has the most friends and relatives will win, not nec the best pic. I will vote for what i think is the best PICTURE not the boy himself.

• Norma (BABU) Hillman

  It is very very hard to vote, but I must say I liked Leibel Muchniks shot the best…….If I could I’d vote 10 times for his picture,
  and being his Grandmother has nothing to do with it…..

  Norma (BABU) Hillman

• brummel

  isnt that mendy brummel, is that his self portait so cute… just take off the date stamp

• nice

  the picture truly captures the yeshiva bochur playing ball yet proud to be wearing tzitzes and a covered head.Combining gashmius with ruchnius.

• wow

  They are all really, really impressive. The reason I chose the one photographer is because you can see that he’s good at a wide range of subjects in his later photos too.

• Hensha Gansbourg

  I am so impressed with the talent that all of these young men have shown. They could all go to a career in photography. I personally liked one of the rejected photos the best of all. It was many seforim stacked with a pair of eye glasses. It was taken by Leibel Muchnick. Being a graphic designer myself, I though this picture told the best story and was artfully composed.
  Hensha Gansbourg, Boca Raton, FL

• dw

  awesome talent! so hard to choose!

• i like

  edery’s first picture (of the second pair of photos) and speilman’s last one (of the second pair of photos)

• chaim perl

  picking the best shots were hard, this is why we included all of them. picking your best photographer is also ok. we debated putting names by the photos and decided todo so to give deserved credit to each one.

• 417 clan

  go chaim go!! make all of us proud

• nice

  Wow, they are all great!!!!!
  Amazing, this school is teaching skills!!!
  Kol Hakavod

• photoguys

  i am a photographer and i can tell you that all those boys show much talent in framing, stroy telling, composition etc. all execellent. keep up the good work ALL OF YOU

• Moshe Poshe

  I voeted for #1 Aronov – that picture is really something special!

• ur aunt

  We vote for #5 Levertov, because we are so proud of how he captured this beautiful rendition of the flower created by Hashem, with its depth and vibrant color etc. Truthfuly they are all great pictures and it is hard to say which is the best.

• nice job

  They all really deserve a prize. The pictures look very professional! Perhaps next year you could let us vote without knowing who the photographer is until after the votes are counted!

• my opinion

  All the pictures were fantastic! It was extremely hard to pick only one winner – perhaps next time we could vote on first, second, and third place winners? Great job!

• a mom

  Stunning pictures, keep it up!!
  For some of the photographers, I didn’t necessarily love the photo that was chosen for the competition, but I looooved the others he took, that are displayed below. SB Aranov’s were interesting to look at because of the diversity of the subjects. Chaim Levertov’s pictures of flowers captured my heart. I was surprised to see a young boy’s sensitivity come through those photos. He must have a well developed sense of beauty. Avraham Edery captured the moment of the catch masterfully. Mendy Brummel and YL Cohen show a flair of creativity in their pictures but I voted for L Muchnik because of his seforim pictures – they really took my breath away.

• great wrote: wrote: wrote:

  this was so good!!!!!! and even more good!!!!!!! and even more good!!!!!!!

• Leibel FAn

  Go Leibel!! I hope Leibel Muchnik WINS!! Amazing Shot. So Original! WOW!

• breath taking!!!!

  LEIBEL U DEFINATELY ROCKEDD ALL OF THEM BY FARRR!!!! UR THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER BY FAR!!!! THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT UR NOT GONNA WIN!!!!!!

• I PICK LEIBEL MUCHNIK # SIX

  leibel muchnik #6 is my vote its very hard to vote???

• LOVE THE SNAIL

  so atypical. made me smile thanks!

• Varda Rav-Noy

  B”H. I vote for Leibel Muchnik#6. his picture of the Bochor standing at the train station represent the Rebbe’s vision for MIVTZOIM.

• ceo

  those boys are all winners
  BECAUSE THEY GO TO DARCHAI MENACHEM
  WHERE EVERYONE WINS
  in the best way!

• Impressed

  Really, really incredible! You boys are all fantastic photographers!
  The posed pictures are nice, but the really spontaneous ones that tell a story are amazing. The stark black kitten on alert with its soft fur standing on end, contrasting with the harsh asphalt of the street. The impetuously jubilant young boy caught in midair a split second before dropping into a puddle as his awed friends look on. You just know what he’ll look like in seconds and you can almost imagine the look on his mother’s face when he walks in soaking wet.The ball and bat caught in movement. The boy leaping in midair to catch a ball. The taxi zipping by. The yellow ball and game pieces’ movements caught as a boy stares in concentration. Each one (and others) provoke the imagination with the past, present and future. Just beautiful.

  The details and angles of the closeups are spectacular as well. The buildings and flowers are incredible. I wish I had the picture of the tree to hang on my wall.
  The seforim pictures are really nice, and the concept is wonderful, put they are so very posed, and instead of imagining a studious learner who pulled off his glasses to wipe his tired eyes, I imagine a young boy carefully setting each sefer in the right position, wiping clean the glasses and placing them carefully in just the right spot. As nice as the pictures are, I’d love to see them with an edge of more spontaneity.

  I too, wish the names were not included. I only know one of the boys, but did receive a message from his mother to vote for him just as I’m sure many others did for all the boys. I do feel that the boy with the biggest family and circle of friends is the most likely to win.

  To all of you boys and Rabbi Perl, Kol Hakovod! I wish I could do what you all can!

• Brummel

  Mendy Brummel nice pic!

• Rochel

  Why don’t they do things like this for girls? Always about boys…

• C M

  I am very very impressed.

• bsh

  WOW! Some very good photos, even for 12-year-olds!
  I taught photography in Cooper Union while a student.
  The use of B&W was very clever and artful. Color might have ruined it (Sepia or some solid color might also work.)
  The photo captures a spirit and attitude. It makes a ‘statement.’ If leaves you with an impression.
  The left-leaning hat is balanced by the large tree in the left background. The larger space on the left mimicks the left-leaning hat with its generous volume. The space between benches also adds to this.
  Basically the foreground and background are integrated.
  A piece of art is made of many components:
  Shape, color, movement (of eye-rythm), etc. The highlight (shine) on the left bench is balanced by the subject’s forehead, which is highlighted. (‘Luck’ would have it that the name on his teeshirt ‘forest’ ads to the statement).
  Whether or not this all was intentional doesn’t matter-it’s there.
  All-in-all it seems to be the most interesting and artistic photograph. I almost get the impression it was ‘doctored’ (It’s OK to ‘doctor.’) in a darkroom.
  One is left with an impression that stays with you. Certainly the hallmark of a good piece of art work.

• Go Mendy B!!

  Very impressive, they’re all such great shots!

• YvY

  I love this!! Can’t they do this in all the Yeshivos and
  Girls’ Schools?

• Proud uncle

  The pictures are very artful, and the subjects….I love my nephews jumping in the puddles the best!!They are adorable!!!!

• a reader

  I voted for SB Aronov. His photo has a lot of character. The lighting, the angle and the depth are quite amazing! Its a beautiful shot! He has a lot of talent.

• voter

  SB Aronov’s shot is really striking and artful! i like his other pics too. Its nice to see how all the boys display creativity & skill.

• att schools

  wow! could this program be instituted into other yeshivas (like my son’s)?

• the train

  I love this photo. Its alive and looks like it’s telling a story. I love the way the train is moving and the man is stationary it can seem as if there is even a deeper message here, the industrial, economic world is whizzing by while this Jewish man takes a stance, standing firmly rooted in yiddishkeit!

• Dovid Steinhauser

  #8 loocs vere nice

• Wonderful photography !

  May I ask what the brand and model of this camera is please ??
  Great talent !!
  Gorgeous results !!
  Keep it up !

• heres my take

  I say, the photo of the boy in midair is most striking! It captures a moment, an activity, an action, an emotion and looks like so much fun. I think such a picture is more artful than a photo of a stationary object, or a pile of seforim. I also like the pic of the boys playing in front of the house, the scene, and the black and white affect make it look like a scene from some tenement apartment 50 years ago, where people lived in little old apartments on top of each other and hung out all day with the kids on the block. its quaint and quite interesting that its actually a current picture in our neighborhood. It has so much character, its an amazing shot!!

• someone by the name of eli

  all thes photos are great

• me

  I like the energy, the tzitzis dangling in midair. It is a picture that epitomizes Chabad, reaching beyond oneself. A Yeshiva boy after a day of learning heads to the field for some exercise, living the dichotomy of a life dedicated to Hashem and Torah learning, but also in the world around him.

  PS My second and close runner-up is the Forest camp boy. I like his tilted cap, reminiscent of the bravery that liberated Russia, the Bielski Bros that saved so many Jews. It’s a look of readiness to do what is needed, a true pioneer.

• ma

  I agree with some of those who commented that the vote would be better if we didn’t know whose picture it was so we could choose without pre-conception.
  Darchai Menachem is really something special. They seem to give their boys a real feeling that they will do meaningful projects and the boys really show how much they appreciate it!

• black and white pictures

  the one in black and white was very interesting by brummel. it was only one from all of them which was black and white. and his cap together with the black and white made it have an “old time” look.

• ur bro shliach in CA

  Leibel Muchnik is the best! …and so is his photos! :-)

• i liek

  the one of the lubav davening in the forest. striking
  but all of them are MAMASH gorgeous

• cp

  the cameras used to take all these pix were all valued under $200. each kid had a different kind

• SBA Fans

  There are several more of us here (relatives) (four to be exact) who would like to vote for SBA’s photo, however, this computer was already used for one vote, and we don’t have access to other computers at this time.
  Go, SBA… you show great and wonderful talent. You also show great sensitivity to the environment and world around you.

  SBA- keep at it, and you will see amazing results.
  We love you!!!

• leibel fan

  leibel muchnik his best photo

• Anony!

  Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the pics are amazing, and they are such young photographers, can we take the courses too? ;) :)

• A Mom

  Y.C.P. we are so proud of you.Keep on going.