Photo Illustration for The New Yorker's Flash Fiction piece, "Listening for the Click," by Johanna Ekström, 2021
Shtick, 2023
Photo Illustration for The New Yorker's Flash Fiction piece, "All Lot of Things Have Happened," by Adam Levin, 2022
Mishegas, 2022
Portrait of paternal grandmother's on her 80th birthday. Photographic print adorned with lipstick kisses and Shabbat candles as horns.
Shabbat in Boxes, 2022
Currently on view as part of the show TZIMTZUM atThe Jerusalem Biennale 2024.
On a Friday evening, while unpacking boxes in her parents' new apartment, Mendel replaces the packed-up Shabbat candles with two bare-bulbed lamps.
Using the irony of electricity to welcome Shabbat, traditionally a time when electricity is prohibited, this image acknowledges the potential absurdity observers may perceive in upholding tradition in a modern world. Yet, it also underscores a deeper intention of religious practice – finding faith in a landscape that challenges its very existence surpasses perfection in traditional rituals.
Photo Illustration for New Yorker's Flash Fiction piece, "Life with Spider," story by Patrick Langley
Great Lake, Great Longing, Lake Erie, OH, 2020
93rd St. Kotel (The Wailing Walls of My Apartment), 2024
Currently on view as part of the show TZIMTZUM at The Jerusalem Biennale 2024.
In this image, private notes and letters are tucked into a printed photograph of bricks, taken and rephotographed in Mendel’s apartment on East 93rd St. in New York City.
Inspired by the tradition of placing prayer notes in the Western Wall, Mendel reflects on sacred spaces in a post-pandemic world. With the boundaries between public and private life blurred as remote work becomes the norm, and accessibility and availability are expected if not demanded, the need to maintain an inner sanctum prompts reflection on self-preservation—a concept well-known to those in the Jewish diaspora.
Overgrown Child Found Suffocated in Parent's Apartment, 2020
Origins, 2023
Ruach, 2022
Sprung, 2022
Check Pulse, Run Through, 2022
Dust Bunny in Kid Corner, 2022