Belfast-born photographer Hannah Starkey’s images are poised between documentary and cinematic fiction (her American counterpart Philip-Lorca diCorcia springs to mind). For her latest (and seventh) solo exhibition at Maureen Paley, London, the artist doesn’t deviate far from her formula with a collection of predominantly new photographs captured this year.
Starkey is best known for her portraits of women in solitude, honing in more recently on subjects within the confines of a city environment. Capturing intimate moments of private reflection, the London-based artist’s photographs are imbued with a theatrical quality that sees her role in its making straddle that of director and voyeur.
Her interest in street photography can be traced back to a nineteenth century concept of the flâneur – or stroller, lounger, saunterer or loafer. ‘The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes,’ explained American writer and critic Susan Sontag in her seminal On Photography. And that sentiment is captured earnestly in Starkey’s images.
In one image, a silhouette emerges against a kaleidoscopic backdrop; in another, a series of mirrors offer fragmented glimpses of the world behind Starkey. The only work that jars in this small but perfectly formed outing is the oldest: an untitled photograph from early-2013 depicting a pink-haired subject clasping an umbrella. It’s a melancholic exhibition worth a moment of quiet contemplation.
Mirror - Untitled, September 2015’.
Shadows - Untitled, October 2015’.
Untitled, January 2013’. © Hannah Starkey.
’Untitled, October 2015’.
’Untitled, November 2015’.
INFORMATION
Hannah Starkey’s exhibition runs until 24 January 2016. For more information visit the Maureen Paley website
ADDRESS
Maureen Paley
21 Herald Street
London E2 6JT
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