Hannah Collins

Hannah Collins’ great theme is the “lostness” of human existence, and also those forces that act against it and the knowledge that makes the imparting of these forces possible. Following trails laid by her own biography, Hannah Collins, the daughter of a Polish Jew, has as her theme the plight of the homeless and the displaced, of those who are never sure of the places and mo- dalities of their existence, of those who must forever suffer, struggle and assert themselves in the face of overwhelming odds. Her work marries the performative with the documentary in images of interiors and exteriors, situations and objects of great poetical strength, a strength that feeds on a dissolve of inward landscapes and outward realities. For all her sensitivity towards political and social upheavals, Hannah Collins’ way of working can never be regarded as documentary in the actual sense of the word, for she always makes the voice of the individual audible above that of the group.

Hannah Collins, born in London in 1956, made a name for herself during the 1980swith her large- format black-and-white photographs. In 1993 she was one of the nominees for the Turner Prize. Institutions that have honoured her with presentations of her work include the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, and the Whitechapel Gallery, London.