{"id":3812,"date":"2023-05-26T23:52:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T23:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/?p=3812"},"modified":"2023-05-26T23:53:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T23:53:30","slug":"thirty-two-minutes-with-hortense-mendel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/thirty-two-minutes-with-hortense-mendel\/","title":{"rendered":"32 Minutes with Hortense Mendel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mt-2\"><div class=\"rl-gallery-container rl-loading\" id=\"rl-gallery-container-1\" data-gallery_id=\"3811\"> <div class=\"rl-gallery rl-basicmasonry-gallery rl-hover-effect-1 rl-hover-icon-2\" id=\"rl-gallery-1\" data-gallery_no=\"1\"> <div class=\"rl-gutter-sizer\"><\/div><div class=\"rl-grid-sizer\"><\/div> <div class=\"rl-gallery-item rl-gallery-item-width-4\" > <div class=\"rl-gallery-item-content\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror1-scaled.jpg\" title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" data-rl_title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror1-768x1240.jpg\" width=\"768\" height=\"1240\" alt=\"Hortense Mendel\" \/><\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <div class=\"rl-gallery-item\" > <div class=\"rl-gallery-item-content\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror2-scaled.jpg\" title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" data-rl_title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror2-768x1240.jpg\" width=\"768\" height=\"1240\" alt=\"Hortense Mendel\" \/><\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <div class=\"rl-gallery-item\" > <div class=\"rl-gallery-item-content\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror3-scaled.jpg\" title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" data-rl_title=\"Hortense Mendel David in her home in the Bronx, c. mid 1950s.\" class=\"rl-gallery-link\" data-rl_caption=\"\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HMDmirror3-768x1240.jpg\" width=\"768\" height=\"1240\" alt=\"Hortense Mendel\" \/><\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"mt-4\"><span class=\"smallcaps\">In the olden days<\/span> before digital photography, double exposures were either made with considerable effort and planning or, simply, by mistake. These three mash-ups of Hortense Mendel in her Bronx living room with landscapes of a New England boat basin were obviously done the easy way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indentpara\">Fortunately, we can still see enough of what inspired her husband to snap a few pictures in the first place. The almost cinematic image sequence encompasses family history (the cast-iron gothic-revival mantel clock with hand-painted pastoral, a remnant of the sturdy middle-class background of Hortense\u2019s German-born father) and popular culture (the \u201cLacy Lavender Supreme\u201d African violets, a house plant whose availability and varieties had only really begun to take off in the previous ten years). It touches on spiritual awareness (the havdalah candle) and personal details (Ismar David\u2019s own pocket watch). Hortense herself is reflected in the large mirror on a sea of patterned wallpaper, fussing over some unseen domestic activity. Maybe she was setting the table or packing for the couple\u2019s regular summer vacation in Rockport, Massachusetts. The weather was warm enough to open the window. In any case, we are privy to a glimpse of their private lives, simultaneously immediate and very, very far away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the olden days before digital photography, double exposures were either made with considerable effort and planning or, simply, by mistake. These three mash-ups of Hortense Mendel in her Bronx living room with landscapes of a New England boat basin were obviously done the easy way. Fortunately, we can still see enough of what inspired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3812"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3864,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}