What lies behind those closed portals you pass by as you wander the old sections of Jerusalem or Tzfas?

Photos: Devorie Zutler

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evorie Zutler always loved taking photos, a love she says she inherited from her mother.

“I had a good camera and a good eye and spent most of my summers in the bungalow colony running after my children, capturing their summer experiences,” Devorie says.

For about 15 years, Devorie worked as a travel agent in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where she lived, but her summer hobby took off anyway. Other bungalow colony moms wanted in on the photo shoots, and despite Devorie’s protests at the time that she wasn’t a professional photographer, she developed a seasonal gig taking family and children’s portraits in the country.

“I’d go to my sister’s bungalow colony as well, take photos of my nieces and nephews, and then of course, her friends wanted me to photograph their kids, and it just kind of spiraled from there,” Devorie remembers. “I’d set up shoots on the beach for families who didn’t go to the bungalow colonies, and just like that, I sort of fell into the field of photography.”

Devorie had been working as a professional photographer for almost ten years when she received a call from a bungalow colony client who wanted her to give a photography class to the women of Mekimi, an organization for families of sick children. The Mekimi mothers got together weekly for some respite, and the organization would arrange a fun activity for them. The women wanted to learn photography, and the Mekimi volunteer thought of Devorie.

“My husband is a musician who often played for children in the hospital,” Devorie says. “I also wanted to do chesed with my talents.”

Despite a terrible fear of public speaking, Devorie pulled out a notebook and began to jot some thoughts down. Before she knew it, she had filled the entire notebook with a well-plotted curriculum.

“I looked down in surprise and thought, You know, this would make a great Sunday photography workshop for girls.”

The Mekimi class was a huge success, and within two days, Devorie, never one to do something halfway, had created ads, a calendar outlining a class schedule, and a complete photography curriculum geared to young girls. Soon enough, one thing led to another.

“The girls’ mothers called to sign up their daughters and told me they would love something similar, so that was my next project. Of course, I had to create a more mature course geared to women and teens, where we actually learned shutter speed, aperture, and all the other technical aspects of photography.”

After a few years of working both as a photographer and a photography course instructor, Devorie realized she was juggling two full-time jobs. She decided to devote her professional time completely to photography education.