Hannah Starkey’s Photographs Ask Us to See Ladies as They Actually Are

Hannah Starkey is one among Britain’s most revered photographers. Throughout her 25-year profession, she has used images to look at how girls and ladies navigate their bodily environments. A brand new exhibition, Hannah Starkey: In Actual Life – which has simply opened at The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire – is the primary main survey present of Starkey’s work.

Tracing the event of her follow over twenty years, the exhibition options images from her critically acclaimed Royal School of Artwork commencement present from 1997, by way of to a brand new physique of labor made this yr within the Yorkshire metropolis. Well-known for her meticulously choreographed photographs of girls in (largely) city areas, this exhibition provides audiences a chance to interact with this important photographic work in one of many UK’s main galleries.

The exhibition was additionally chosen for the 2019 Freelands Award, an annual prize that permits a UK arts organisation to current an exhibition by a mid-career lady artist. As a part of this venture, Starkey labored with a gaggle of early-career feminine and non-binary photographers born or based mostly in Yorkshire to help the event of their work. An accompanying exhibition, Reframing, Reclaiming, has additionally simply opened at The Artwork Home, Wakefield. 

AnOther spoke with Hannah to be taught extra in regards to the exhibition, the position training can play in how we interact with picture tradition, and her expertise of creating new work and exhibiting in Wakefield. 

Adam Murray: There’s been a interval of reflection in recent times together with your work. There was your ebook Images 1997-2017, and this exhibition was initially scheduled to open in 2020 however was postponed as a consequence of Covid restrictions. How has your relationship with the work within the exhibition modified throughout this time?

Hannah Starkey: My work is ongoing and tracks my very own expertise on the planet at completely different levels of my life. So, life as a younger lady, a younger mom, a mom of teenage ladies, an older lady all by way of the lens of images and searching from the within. Each ten years I publish a ebook that re-evaluates the work to this point, modifying as the gathering grows. Engaged on my Hepworth present was time to take inventory of 25 years of photographing girls. Whereas progress for ladies’s equality has been exponential, I prefer to maintain my eye out for any slippage. 

I’ve a vested curiosity as I’ve two daughters and I can see the damaging results of photographs offered to ladies. Elevating my daughters and being a photographer has given me an perception into how images is consistently encoded to remind them of their gender. I might see how early ladies have been socialised into the ‘efficiency of femininity’ and to me, it appeared to be a conditioning that wouldn’t serve them properly in life however was one way or the other, unavoidable.

AM: You describe now as being ‘a very vital second in each the historical past of images and ladies’s equality,’ and that ‘an attention-grabbing shift is coming.’ Are you able to increase on this, what modifications do you suppose we are able to count on?

HS: I believe I mentioned that in 2017, simply after the Ladies’s March in London. I used to be overwhelmed by the ability of the protest and made some work there. I hadn’t realised I used to be struggling below the load of misogyny and patriarchal rule, like a variety of girls. On the time I used to be round 45 years previous, so I had sufficient expertise behind me to know that this was an vital show of multi-generational men and women who had had sufficient of the disrespect dished out to girls and ladies. It made me actually unhappy that ladies had made stunning indicators that have been saying the identical factor as was mentioned after I was a younger lady. 

I do suppose girls are particular and essential for our close to future. We can not permit them to be introduced down by a predator or purchased and offered by way of an infinite jet of consumerism. It was a second when the individuals demanded the tip of misogyny for future generations. Ladies’s equality is the longest revolution in human historical past, and I really feel we’re simply on the turning level of a brand new Aquarian age. The show of misogyny and strong-man politics is coming to an finish, however the backlash will likely be fierce. As for images, younger girls got here in tens of 1000’s to check images. After witnessing this for 25 years, I believe, wow, they’re the revolution.

AM: Alongside the exhibition, you’ve additionally labored with a gaggle of early-career girls and non-binary photographers on numerous academic assets. Do you suppose photographic training both has or maybe wants to alter in comparison with whenever you have been learning?

HS: I believe that it’s vital to get into ladies’ heads that after they take a look at a picture, that picture has been constructed. Not solely does it not exist, however you’ll die attempting to reside as much as these magnificence requirements. I’m pondering of the Burberry advertisements that stretched the mannequin’s physique a lot that her thighs have been nearly the identical measurement as her decrease leg. The ‘thigh hole’ was ridiculous however they don’t know that. For me, it’s legal. I would love them to be taught about our picture tradition and tips on how to shield themselves, or at the least have the ability to apply a cognitive rationale which defuses the photographs’ energy. I believe that we can not proceed to see images as benign, to recognise and take severely its influence on the psychological well being of our daughters. Principally, train them that images is subliminal and goes method beneath the threshold for aware notion.

AM: New work commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield options within the exhibition – are you able to describe your experiences making work within the metropolis?

HS: Working in Wakefield felt very comfy to me. The persons are pleasant and love to speak. Being a lady from Belfast with a whippet, I really feel I’ve a rapport with the North. I’m fascinated by actual girls’s lives. I can see how a lot exhausting work they do whereas being saved within the situation of not having a lot cash. I’m not stunned that magnificence outlets are flourishing in low-income areas. The ladies of Wakefield have been very beneficiant and I might like to get the chance to make extra footage with them. I nonetheless have a variety of unused concepts tormenting me, and places that I’d actually prefer to {photograph}.

AM: You’ve an extended historical past of solo exhibitions, with most held in galleries in main cities resembling London, Paris and New York. What alternatives does staging an exhibition in Wakefield give you

HS: I’m not from Wakefield so all the things is new. A change in atmosphere may be very invigorating for me. My images may be very unobtrusive. Usually, I wander round as a flâneuse – observing and creating narratives in my head. I like to get misplaced, one way or the other images provides you that objective in life. I take into consideration what it’s that I wish to say after which assemble a picture to say it. I’m encouraging you to consider the collaborative nature of the photographs. They’re acts of affection and appreciation, not essentially for the topic, however for ladies basically. A photographic illustration that’s completely different. 

Hannah Starkey: In Actual Life is on present at The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire till 30 April 2023.