Not on display

Untitled May 1997

Photograph
05/1997 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Starkey, Hannah (photographer)
Place of origin
United Kingdom (photographed)

In 1997, when Hannah Starkey graduated from the Royal College of Art, she received a number of awards including The Photographers Gallery Award, The Sunday Times Award and the John Kobal Portrait Award. Her photographs of women in atmospheric interiors have been widely exhibited and reproduced in publications. About this image, the photographer wrote: 'The photograph of the two girls on a sofa depicts a situation that is both reality and fantasy. A moment in teenage years that can be easily identified with as a familiar memory. Emma and Sam were drama students, and this was their student union. It portrays a moment (possibly one of many) when the party is, at least for now, over. The expectations of the evening are now replaced with exhaustion and their relationship becomes one of co-dependency and the shared knowledge of a satisfied ending.'

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleUntitled May 1997 (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
C-type print, mounted on aluminium
Photographic Paper
Photography
Brief description
Starkey, Hannah. 'Untitled - May 1997' (Couch), C-type photograph
Physical description
Colour photograph of two young girls, one seated and one reclining on a couch in what appears to be a student union or other public space.
Dimensions
  • Height: 122cm
  • Width: 160.5cm
Production typeLimited edition
Copy number
Artist's proof, outside edition of 3
Gallery label
Making It Up: Photographic Fictions (2018)
Marta Weiss

Starkey uses female actors to create carefully staged, large-scale tableaux. Her photographs depict plausible, even familiar, incidents from everyday life, but the absorption of the characters and the epic scale of the prints suggest greater significance. As in Lady Hawarden’s photographs, this work shows a moment of intimacy between two adolescent girls.
Hannah Starkey (born 1968)
Untitled – May 1997 (Couch)
1997
Starkey uses female actors to create carefully staged, large-scale tableaux. Her
photographs depict plausible, even familiar, incidents from everyday life, but the
absorption of the characters and the epic scale of the prints suggest greater
significance. As in Lady Hawarden’s photographs (to the right), this work shows a
moment of intimacy between two adolescent girls.
C-type print
Museum no. E.491-1998
Hannah Starkey (British, born 1968)
Untitled. May 1997
C-type colour print
Bought 1998
E.491-1998

"The photograph of the two girls on a sofa depicts a situation that is both reality and fantasy. A moment in teenage years that can be easily identified with as a familiar memory. Emma and Sam were drama students, and this was their student union. It portrays a moment (possibly one of many) when the party is, at least for now, over. The expectations of the evening are now replaced with exhaustion and their relationship becomes one of co-dependency and the shared knowledge of a satisfied ending."

Hannah Starkey, October, 1997
(2008-2009)
Hannah Starkey has said that she likes to explore 'everyday experiences and observations of inner city life from a female perspective.' She does so by using generally female actors to create large-scale tableaux, in which the protagonists act out carefully staged scenarios. Her images often portray moments of quiet drama, touching upon areas of experience which are familiar but which remain unspoken or below the surface. Starkey's narratives suggest that we have caught her characters momentarily unawares, leaving us to imagine the build-up or aftermath to the incident portrayed.
Label for 'Making It Up: Photographic Fictions' (3 May 2013 - 12 January 2014):

Hannah Starkey (born 1968)
Untitled – May 1997 (Couch)
1997

Starkey uses female actors to create carefully staged, large-scale tableaux . Her photographs depict plausible, even familiar incidents from everyday life, but the absorption of the characters and the epic scale of the prints suggest greater significance. As in Lady Hawarden’s photographs (also on display here), this work shows a moment of intimacy between two adolescent girls.


C-type print
Museum no. E.491-1998
Credit line
Copyright Hannah Starkey, courtesy Maureen Paley/Interim Art
Object history
Historical significance: Hannah Starkey graduated from the photography MA course at the Royal College of Art in 1997. In the same year she received a number of awards including, The Photographers Gallery Award, The Sunday Times Award and the John Kobal Portrait Award.
Production
Reason For Production: Exhibition
Subject depicted
Couch
Summary
In 1997, when Hannah Starkey graduated from the Royal College of Art, she received a number of awards including The Photographers Gallery Award, The Sunday Times Award and the John Kobal Portrait Award. Her photographs of women in atmospheric interiors have been widely exhibited and reproduced in publications. About this image, the photographer wrote: 'The photograph of the two girls on a sofa depicts a situation that is both reality and fantasy. A moment in teenage years that can be easily identified with as a familiar memory. Emma and Sam were drama students, and this was their student union. It portrays a moment (possibly one of many) when the party is, at least for now, over. The expectations of the evening are now replaced with exhaustion and their relationship becomes one of co-dependency and the shared knowledge of a satisfied ending.'
Bibliographic reference
Catalogue: Silver and Syrup: Selections from the History of Photography exhibition
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.491-1998

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Record createdJanuary 24, 2000
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O20214/untitled-may-1997-photograph-starkey-hannah/
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