Recent - Hana Mendel's Portfolio

Mom Wears Many Hats, 2021

Shabbat in Boxes, 2022

On a Friday evening, while unpacking boxes in her parents' new apartment, Mendel replaces the packed-up Shabbat candles with two bare-bulbed lamps.

By using the irony of electric light to welcome Shabbat, a time when electricity is traditionally prohibited, the image acknowledges the absurdity experienced when one chooses an old-world tradition in a modern world. Still, the image underscores the deeper intention in Jewish practice – that choosing faith in a landscape which challenges its very existence far supersedes perfection in ritual.

Jerusalem, Israel, 2022

Shalom Bayit, 2023

Titled after the Jewish concept for 'peace in the home,' this photograph showcases the mezuzah gifted to Mendel from her

then partner.

While facing challenges merging his observant Jewish upbringing with her secular background, the two discovered the mezuzah falling in moments of religious tension. Unable to drill it to the metal doorframe, the two secured the mezuzah with painter's tape – a delicate compromise for a most delicate harmony.

Ode to Diaspora Jew, 2024

[Featured in New York Magazine’s Issue: Torn Up

and Apart, “The War in Gaza and New York.”]

After October 7th, observant Jewish Americans began reconsidering how and when to conceal their religious identity. In this image, Yosef Itzkowitz, a resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, wears a baseball cap to conceal his kippah.