STARKEY, Hannah - Photographs 1997-2017

Personal statement by Northern-Irish photographer, Hannah STARKEY

'I really think that visual culture is the final battleground for women's equality and freedom.' (Hannah STARKEY)

Background information

"Since the mid-1990s, Northern Irish photographer Hannah STARKEY has been dedicated to women and the ways in which photography shapes notions of what it means to be female. Known for her cinematic mise-en-scène, the U.S. photographer produces portraits of women from different generations, often set in everyday urban contexts.  Offering a view of the flâneuse - a female counterpoint to the artistic tradition of the male flâneur - her images capture moments of private reflection, alienation, or social interaction that might otherwise be invisible: a woman fleetingly fascinated by another woman's reflection or attentive to a mother's gaze as she carries her child. Like modern genre paintings, her photographs of are based on familiar narratives, but play with the visual languages of different photographic genres-including diaristics, street art, documentary, cinema, fine art, and fashion-to subtly examine the ways in which women live are represented in popular culture.

Content, Reception

From her early staged photographs in Belfast to her recent documentation of the 2017 Women's March in London, this catalog raisonné, 'Hannah Starkey, Photographs 1997-2017,' showcases two decades of her influential image-making and serves as an important touchstone for discussions of the female gaze. The volume includes also a biographical essay by curator and author Charlotte Cotton, as well as a candid conversation between the artist and editor and author Liz Jobey." (free translation of publisher's text, © Mack Books, 2018)
"Through the lens of [Hannah STARKEY], these quotidian moments are given an unmistakable emotional gravity" (© Jordan G. Teicher, in The New York Times).

About Northern-Irish photographer, Hannah STARKEY

Photo books by Hannah STARKEY