Hannah Starkey is a Belfast born artist, who lives and works in London. She is a fairly recent art school graduate who was shortlisted for the
Citibank Photographic Prize 2001.
Starkey takes photographs of
young women at
insignificant moments in their day -
waiting around outside a cafe,
choosing a video, getting ready for
going out, looking sulkily at their mother , looking in the
mirror in the girl's toilet - but the
images encapsulate each
specific moment
beautifully.
The artist actually uses
professional actresses chosen to play the role required for the photograph. Each image is
concieved as a
mise en scene, a commentary on the
everyday life of young women. The images are very female in their subject and
construction, and somewhat
melancholic, but they are
"informed by her own experiences of a woman living and working in a cosmopolitan city", which is perhaps why I was so particularly
touched and
drawn in by them.
You can see some of her work at
www.bava.com/html/eng/award/award/h_starkey_large.html and
www.photonet.org.uk/programme/citibank/starkey3.html