Hannah Starkey Photographs 1997-2007

I decided to revisit the work of Hannah Starkey so that I could get a more in-depth understanding of her work.

I looked at her newest book 'Photographs 1997-2007'. At the beginning of the book it has a 'modern story' written about her by Iwona Blazwick.

I found it really interesting, 'her environments frame a series of portraits; these are nearly always of women who themselves are nearly always lost in thought'. I She uses a variety of public and private locations that we all occupy but at times feel like we are invisible in, they are small spaces such as porches, corridors, public toilets etc. She says they are places 'we are limbo, moving from one activity to another, waiting for something to happen escaping from the sturm und drang (storm and stress) of everyday life'. thought this fitted really well with my project as everyone in my images are on their own and are lost in their dreams.

Starkey is also drawn to woods and forests as she defines them as a magical space, 'that since storytelling began, is both a dangerous and liberating.' I this made me think about potentially taking the mirror outside the bedroom and shooting in a forest as I feel this would create a creepy dark feel to my images that can happen in nightmares.

Looking deeply into Starkey's images you can see that she puts a lot of effort into the composition of her images, all the surfaces in her interiors are hard which gives the images a colder feel, combined with the lighting they often give a sense of alienation, however they still mange to look beautiful.

Looking at her work again has given me ideas of how to arrange my interiors to get a cinematic feel to my images and the use of coloured lighting can really change the feel of an image.