Tamar Shemesh (Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism '25) received the Juror's Pick honor at the LensCulture Portraits Awards 2026 for her series The King's Daughter Is All Glorious Within. The award's winners represent 39 photographers whose work defines the possibilities of portraiture today.
Shemesh's work centers The Sheitel—the wig worn by ultra-Orthodox married women, a ritual rooted in both religious devotion and personal style. For over two centuries, Jewish women have shaped their sense of beauty and femininity within the boundaries of modesty (tzniut), while also adapting to modern aesthetics and cultural shifts. Through close access to women from the Crown Heights community in Brooklyn, this project traces the relationships women cultivate with their sheitels as an extension of the self; from the transitional moments of wedding ceremonies to everyday practices in wig salons and private spaces.
2024, Crown Heights, New York. The Chabad Orthodox Jewish community. Wigs on display at Zlata’s wig salon.
Rory Walsh, Photo Editor for the New York Times Magazine and the juror who selected the series said: "I selected Tamar Shemesh’s series The King’s Daughter Is All Glorious Within. A cohesive and engaging body of work, the series is composed of varied individual facets, each carefully crafted to reveal layers of beauty, connection and identity. The sense of the individual emerges, conveyed as powerfully through the still images of the sheitel as through the portraits themselves."
Devorah’le. 2025, Crown Heights, New York. The Chabad Orthodox Jewish community. Devorah’le, a mother of four, at home. She wears a wig made from her own hair, holding a strand that was left out. According to Jewish tradition, married women cover their hair to keep modesty.
