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As summer begins its wind-down in Philadelphia, a South Philly photographer is presenting a photo project documenting Jewish girls during the formative period of summer camp.
Rachel Wisniewski’s book “L’dor Vador” follows 13 girls, aged 10–13, over a period of three summers between 2021 and 2023 at Camp Nah-Jee-Wah, a 102-year-old Jewish summer camp in the Poconos.
“Anyone can look through these photos and remember a simpler time before anxiety and taxes and things like that, when summers were just the most magical thing,” Wisniewski said. “Having that break off of school and getting to have control over your life and your schedule, which you don’t get otherwise as a kid.”
The self-published book is full of swimming, cluttered cabins and friendship bracelets. Days are spent swimming and braiding hair while nights are filled with bonfires and flashlights in bunks.
Camp Nah-Jee Wah is a co-ed camp, but boys rarely appear in the photos, and when they do, it is by chance. Adults are similarly scarce. “L’dor Vador” portrays a world of girls living every moment with one another for two months.
“Something that the girls have said to me is that they’ve become a lot closer with each other than with their school friends because they’re spending every single hour together. They’re falling asleep together, they’re showering together, they’re eating meals together,” Wisniewski said. “It really was only each other that they saw.”