Hannah Starkey, photographs 1997-2007 - Iwona Blazwick

Since 1997, Hannah Starkey has produced a series of photographic meditations on contemporary life. Her early works were staged scenarios based on the experiences of young women living in the city. They were meticulously constructed and often cinematic, suggesting a narrative that had been artificially suspended in time. Her later works, both technically and compositionally more advanced, set up a tension between the real and the imaginary and draw attention to the banality and dehumanizing effects of the constructed environments in which we lead so much of our lives. In recent years her close observation of the urban landscape has produced a series of images in which surfacesa wall, an air-conditioning duct, a runway become relevant subjects in themselves. Starkeys understanding of the passage contemporary photography has made in the past decade continues to fuel and to challenge the development of her own imagery, making her one of the most influential and exceptional photographic artists working today. This book, her first, covers ten years work.