Introduction
This selection of works by Betty Hahn is broadly representative of the type of work she has produced during the span of her career. The work she made during her one year participating at VSW in 1968 had a remarkable impact on work she made later. This was a period of transition from her early work to her later work. Each image seems to be a biography of the ”moment,” showing an aspect of her life at that time. Looking at the collection of her work as a whole, her ”movement” between ideas and processes and the relationships between the photographs appear.
Hahn’s consideration of the photograph as a medium cannot be overstated. As an undergraduate, she majored in graphic design and transitioned into photography. She was not afraid to play with photographs, and photography in general. Her later works are especially hard to categorize as photographs. For one of her most notable projects, Hahn printed with gum bichromate, and after altering the photographic image by transferring it to fabric, she chose the details to further emphasize by embroidering the print with colorful thread.
Her earlier works in the 1960s consist of more traditional black and white prints, especially portraits. At the same time, she was experimenting with photographic techniques such as movement and double exposure of composition and subjects. Although 30 or 40 years have passed, her works are still fresh and stimulating.
About Betty Hahn
Betty Hahn at a conference in Arizona, 1978. Taken by Bill Jay (Photographer)
Betty Hahn moved to Rochester after working at Cornell University as a slide maker. While in Rochester, she participated in Nathan Lyons’s Visual Studies Workshop from 1967 to 1968. During her time at VSW she met Tom Barrow, Roger Mertin, and Alice Wells, and reconnected with Robert Fichter. Hahn was hired as a visiting professor to teach photography at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She taught there until retirement in 1997. Among the museum collections that contain Hahn’s work are the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery, Ottawa, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. FK
For more information on this artist, including VSW's holdings, please click here.
About the Exhibition
Movement: Selections from the First Decade of the Visual Studies Workshop is an online exhibition showcasing an assortment of over 100 pieces from working artists affiliated with the Visual Studies Workshop in the 1970s. These selected artists demonstrate the early years of a revolutionary new institution. [Read More]
