Hannah Starkey

Hannah Starkey is an accomplished contemporary photographer who captures unique moments of women in the inner city. Her work focuses on the female perspective and experience and often sets unidentifiable subjects against visually alluring settings. Elements of street photography and cinematic narrative can be seen in her work and mirrors are a prevalent recurring theme in her photography.

Born in Belfast in 1971, Hannah studied photography and film at Napier University, Edinburgh as well as photography at the Royal College of Art, London. After moving to London permanently she began to photograph women, often actors or friends, set against urban backdrops. Her works are instantly recognisable and depict women as they are with props and mirrored surfaces used to heighten emotion and the connection between subject and onlooker. They stand to counteract the culture where photographs of women are largely created by and for men.

Hannah has exhibited all over Europe including at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Fotografie, Cologne; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast; Maureen Paley, London, and the Mead Gallery, Warwick. She has been awarded the  Vogue Condé Nast Award (1997); the 3rd International Tokyo Photo Biennale’s Award for Excellence (1999), the St. James Group Ltd Photography Prize (2002), and the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society (2019).

By Louise Sinnerton