Redressing the imbalance

It’s been more than two decades since Hannah Starkey burst onto the British photography scene with a hugely well-regarded graduate show at the Royal College of Art in London. In the quarter century which has elapsed since 1997, she has dedicated her time to building up a body of work that turns the lens on women, reframing and redressing what she sees as traditional and patriarchal representations. In 2017, a monograph of her two decades of work was published by Mack Books, while later this year a major retrospective will open at the Hepworth Gallery in Yorkshire. Given the scope of her output, she seemed like the perfect photographer to speak to ahead of International Women’s Day (8 March).

Talking to me from her studio in London, Hannah took the time to explain what it is about this lifelong career focus that has kept her occupied for so long. ‘I’d just started working in the mid-to-late ’90s when I became very aware that I was a young woman in quite a male-dominated industry – particularly in the commercial sector. I was sort of aware