Hannah Altman
Altman is a Jewish-American photographer born in new Jersey but now living and working in Boston. Her work tends to portray folklore, linage, memory and narrative. Particularly known for her work with natural lighting and in cooperating aspects of Jewish culture. She actually began photography as a child to comment on her near-sightedness and throughout her life she continued into the photographer she is now, having many qualifications in photography. She mainly garnered attention when she posted her work as a 19 year old, using glitter to show bodily functions of a woman in a project called ‘and everything nice’ this quickly gained attention from many major magazine companies. Over time she has continued developing her style to the unique and noticeable style she has now. One of her more recent projects is ‘we will return to you’ (2023) which is a series of portraits using natural lighting and interesting poses to make the viewer ask questions and look deeper into the telling of Jewish culture.
I chose this photo as it is a good example of a particular project of Altman’s I like. The project (and everything nice) went viral over night on Tumblr when Altman posted it in February of 2015. As a young collage student (19) she took the photography world by storm. Not only the photography world was impressed but the rest of the world, this was a comment on the progress on how we talk about physical image and gender expectations. Unlike most photographers Altman chose not to pick ‘a best shot’ for this shoot and instead let the photos speak for themselves and create different equally important reactions for each viewer. This photo in particular sparks my interest as nosebleeds are part of everyday life for everyone no matter of gender, age etc. However I like how it’s suggesting that women are still expected to make everything glamorous even in things we can’t help. I think there is this idea still present now, though much reduced, that as women we need to be perfect all the time and everything we do needs to be feminine. I like how the photo is composed with a close frame cropping and centring the ‘nose bleed’ and by making it the focus, it forces the viewer to look at it which we all tend to flex away from and grimace at normally, however it is just part of life. The background is filled by the the rest of the model but is very out of focus. I also wonder if Altman also wanted to comment on the idea that women wear red lipstick when they want to be bold and feel confident in their looks and when society expects them to, like at a ball. It looks realistic as the glitter is messy and not a single line but a stream that goes down the models face and in her mouth and on the models nose.