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Hana Mendel
Mom Wears Many Hats
Parent’s Apartment
New Haven, CT
2022
New Haven, CT
2022
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York
2023
Manhattan, New York
2023
People Watching II
HaTikva Market
Tel Aviv, Israel
2022
Tel Aviv, Israel
2022
“Listening for the Click“
Flash Fiction, The New Yorker
Story by Johanna Ekstrom
2021
Filth and hair on photographic print.
2021
Filth and hair on photographic print.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan, New York
2022
Manhattan, New York
2022
On the Park Avenue median.
Manhattan, New York
2022
Before I had more consistent work in New York, I'd walk as far as my feet could bear hoping to find moments like these--a man sitting alone on a Park Ave. median on the phone with his loved one.
Manhattan, New York
2022
Before I had more consistent work in New York, I'd walk as far as my feet could bear hoping to find moments like these--a man sitting alone on a Park Ave. median on the phone with his loved one.
Jewish Quarter
Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
2022
Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
2022
Check Pulse and Run Straight Through
2022
Soil on photographic print.
Soil on photographic print.
Gedera, Israel
2022
Omar Menachemi, our family friend working at the Gedera Dairy Farm, strokes Ester, the newborn calf he named after his mother.
2022
Omar Menachemi, our family friend working at the Gedera Dairy Farm, strokes Ester, the newborn calf he named after his mother.
Shabbat in Boxes
Parent’s Apartment
New Haven, Connecticut
2022
Shabbat holds a profound sanctity for the Jewish people. We are commanded to immerse ourselves in a weekly spiritual cleansing of the week’s burdens. We return to the simplicity and peace found within oneness of the Creator.
It is important to recognize that Shabbat cannot, and should not, be held more than once per week. It is precisely the tasks of the surrounding week which enables its elevation.
This image was taken during a visit to my parent’s apartment in Connecticut. Their move from Ohio was unexpected and taxing on the family unit. When Friday’s sun began to set, and the Shabbat candles were lost to a sea of cardboard, two bare-bulbed lamps sufficed to bring us home.
Acknowledging the prohibition on using electricity during Shabbat, these lamps humbly recognized our imperfection. Nevertheless, they embodied the Jewish value of intention and effort in upholding tradition, even at the risk of defiance—a value that may have contributed to the survival of our diaspora.
New Haven, Connecticut
2022
Shabbat holds a profound sanctity for the Jewish people. We are commanded to immerse ourselves in a weekly spiritual cleansing of the week’s burdens. We return to the simplicity and peace found within oneness of the Creator.
It is important to recognize that Shabbat cannot, and should not, be held more than once per week. It is precisely the tasks of the surrounding week which enables its elevation.
This image was taken during a visit to my parent’s apartment in Connecticut. Their move from Ohio was unexpected and taxing on the family unit. When Friday’s sun began to set, and the Shabbat candles were lost to a sea of cardboard, two bare-bulbed lamps sufficed to bring us home.
Acknowledging the prohibition on using electricity during Shabbat, these lamps humbly recognized our imperfection. Nevertheless, they embodied the Jewish value of intention and effort in upholding tradition, even at the risk of defiance—a value that may have contributed to the survival of our diaspora.
Macy’s Day Parade
Manhattan, New York
2023
Manhattan, New York
2023
Safta's Mishegas
2023
Portrait of my paternal grandmother (Safta in Hebrew) on her 80th birthday.
Shabbat candles and red lipstick kisses on photographic print.
Portrait of my paternal grandmother (Safta in Hebrew) on her 80th birthday.
Shabbat candles and red lipstick kisses on photographic print.
Macy’s Day Parade
Manhattan, New York
2023
Manhattan, New York
2023
Western Wall
Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
2022
Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
2022
Sound of Stagnancy
2021
I moved to New York after scoring a Covid deal on an Upper East Side apartment. That summer was scorching, and since I didn't have an air-conditioner, I'd leave the windows open. The trash was a few floors beneath my window, and flies would collect on sticky window traps like coins in a fountain. I spent most of that summer laying in a pool of my own sweat on the bare wooden floor, where I'd try to plan a path through the aimlessness, but end up making stuff like this instead.
2021
I moved to New York after scoring a Covid deal on an Upper East Side apartment. That summer was scorching, and since I didn't have an air-conditioner, I'd leave the windows open. The trash was a few floors beneath my window, and flies would collect on sticky window traps like coins in a fountain. I spent most of that summer laying in a pool of my own sweat on the bare wooden floor, where I'd try to plan a path through the aimlessness, but end up making stuff like this instead.
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York
Taken during my first job in the city as a dog walker.
Manhattan, New York
Taken during my first job in the city as a dog walker.
First Day of Second Life
Central Park
Manhattan, New York City
2021
Manhattan, New York City
2021
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York
2023
Manhattan, New York
2023
Downtown Columbus, OH
2019
2019
A Great Longing (Self-Portrait)
Lake Erie, Cleveland, O
2019
2019
Machane Yehuda, Israel
2022
2022
No Chill (Self-Portrait)
2023
That Is Behind Me (Self-Portrait)
2023
Rachel At Home
Lake Michigan
Evanstown, Illinois
2020
In August 2021, I had the opportunity to make a swift exit from my Parent's apartment into a friend's spare bedroom in Chicago. Rachel, my best friend from elementary Torah School, happened to be moving to Chicago around the same time. It had been nearly ten years since we lived near one another, and our timing felt like anything but coincidence. Rachel and I have a friendship that has always appeared surprising on paper. Perhaps it was when we met so long ago, or the ways in which we love. All I know for certain is that many of my favorite memories involve Rachel and open water. Both of us moved frequently in adolescence and never minded changing scenery. Perhaps we place our sense of home in each other.
Evanstown, Illinois
2020
In August 2021, I had the opportunity to make a swift exit from my Parent's apartment into a friend's spare bedroom in Chicago. Rachel, my best friend from elementary Torah School, happened to be moving to Chicago around the same time. It had been nearly ten years since we lived near one another, and our timing felt like anything but coincidence. Rachel and I have a friendship that has always appeared surprising on paper. Perhaps it was when we met so long ago, or the ways in which we love. All I know for certain is that many of my favorite memories involve Rachel and open water. Both of us moved frequently in adolescence and never minded changing scenery. Perhaps we place our sense of home in each other.
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