Hannah Altman
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Hannah Altman (born May 1, 1995) is an American photographer from New Jersey. Her artwork explores lineage, memory, ritual, and storytelling. She is known for her use of
natural light Natural Light, formerly Anheuser-Busch Natural Light, nicknamed Natty, is an American reduced-calorie light lager brewed by Anheuser-Busch. Its ingredients are listed as water, barley malt, cereal grains, yeast, and hops. One serving contains ...
and incorporating aspects of
Jewish culture Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not simply a faith-based religion, but an orthopraxy and Ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, ...
into her work.


Life

A graduate of Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Altman grew up in the Ringoes section of
East Amwell Township, New Jersey East Amwell Township is a township in Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 3,917, a decrease of 96 (−2.4%) from the 2010 census count of 4,013, which in turn re ...
. She is
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
of
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
descent. She started photographing as a child in response to her severe
nearsightedness Myopia, also known as near-sightedness and short-sightedness, is an eye condition where light from distant objects focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry, while close objects appear normal. ...
. She graduated from with a BFA in photography from
Point Park University Point Park University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Formerly known as Point Park College, the school name was revised in 2004 to reflect the number of graduate programs being offered. In 2021, it had a total undergraduate ...
in Pittsburgh, PA in 2017 and an MFA in Photography and Film from
Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...
in Richmond, VA in 2020.


Career

Since 2015, Altman has made the project ''Indoor Voices'', a series of portraits made with her mother. In 2015, when Altman was a 19-year-old student at Point Park University, she posted the photo series ''And Everything Nice'' to her
Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
page featuring bodily fluids replaced with glitter as a critique of female beauty standards. The project garnered significant media attention, with features including ''Buzzfeed'', ''Huffington Post'', ''Vanity Fair'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. She had her first solo show in 2016 at The Lantern Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which explored themes of
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and community. In 2018, as an MFA student at Virginia Commonwealth University, she began working on ''Kavana'', a photography project that explores Jewish memory, narrative heirlooms, and image making. Kris Graves Projects published a photobook of this work in 2020, which has been collected by several libraries, including the MoMa, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Harvard University. Curator Francesca Cesari described her work in 2022 as:
''"''The powerful aesthetic and the profound, symbolic message her works conveys are a fresh, unexpected narrative that immediately leads to a tale of tradition and contemporary. Her poetic language tells us about the Yiddish diaspora through staged portraits, rituals and symbols that re-elaborate old experiences, deeply rooted in the past yet extremely present. There is a kind of silence that flutters through the pictures, we tend to feel the same respect we have in front of a sacred image and at the same time we recognize the tangible sensuality of bodies, with a focus on the female figures. The wonderful use of light and the simple but effective scenes reveal how the experience of exile contain both grief and resilience, a strong identity with a special code that is still relevant today."
Themes of Jewish ritual and storytelling continue to be central in her work, as demonstrated with recent solo exhibitions exploring these concepts at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon in 2020, Filter Photo Chicago, IL in 2021, and Gallery 263 in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2022. In 2023, she became the inaugural Blanksteen Artist in Residence at the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
. She was also named an
Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...
Portfolio Prize finalist in 2023.


Solo exhibitions

* 2023 ''We Will Return to You''. Abakus Projects. Boston, MA. * 2022 ''With Rifts and Collapses.'' Gallery 263. Cambridge, MA. * 2021 ''A Permanent Home in the Mouth of the Sun.'' Filter Space. Chicago, IL. * 2021 ''A Permanent Home in the Mouth of the Sun.'' AAP Exhibition Space. Pittsburgh, PA. * 2020 ''Kavana''. Blue Sky Gallery. Portland, OR. * 2018 ''Construct of Viewpoint.'' Union Hall Gallery. Pittsburgh, PA. * 2017 ''Construct of Viewpoint.'' Junior High Gallery. Los Angeles, CA. * 2017 ''Humanism''. The Temple Judea Museum. Elkins Park, PA. * 2016 ''Luminous / Weightless.'' Lantern Gallery. Pittsburgh, PA. * 2016 ''Intimate Threat,'' with Josh Escoto. Curated by Krista Wright. Trust Arts Education Center. Pittsburgh, PA.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altman, Hannah 1995 births Living people 21st-century American Jews Jews from New Jersey Hunterdon Central Regional High School alumni Photographers from New Jersey Point Park University alumni Virginia Commonwealth University alumni People from East Amwell Township, New Jersey