Betty Hahn

Betty Hahn (born 1940) is an American photographer known for working in alternative and early photographic processes. She completed both her BFA and MFA (1966) at Indiana University Bloomington. Initially, Hahn worked in other two-dimensional art mediums before focusing on photography in graduate school. She is well-recognized due to her experimentation with experimental photographic methods which incorporate different forms of media. By transcending traditional concepts of photography, Hahn challenges the viewer not only to assess the content of the image, but also to contemplate the photographic object itself.

Biography Betty Hahn was born on October 11, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois where she also grew up. Throughout her undergraduate years, she concentrated in drawing and painting; however, as she entered graduate study, she worked in photography. During this important developmental period, Hahn studied under one of the most well-known photography teachers of the time, Henry Holmes Smith, who encouraged Hahn's work in alternative processes.

Once she graduated, Hahn moved to Rochester where she taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology until 1975. Hahn then relocated to Albuquerque where she was professor at University of New Mexico until her retirement in 1997.

Art and Feminism In her work, Hahn delivers a powerful message in regards to women and embroidery. It is quite evident through time that women's labor is needlework, and that their labor is frequently undervalued as craft both when dissimilar and alike to men's work. In a time period where men overshadowed women in the traditional art, such as painting and sculpture, women oftentimes reverted to other mediums like textiles.

It has been suggested that women's work, especially in embroidery, is of little value in the art field since it is considered a craft. Since "arts and crafts" are more often than not paired together, it is obvious they are in the same category; however, there is a clear distinction. For 300 years, women have been taught needlework through practice and tradition, and in inadvertently, promoted obedience and household effeminate behavior. As a result, instead of regarding stitching as an art, many viewed it as a thoughtless skill, lacking originality.

Hahn's art has been exhibited throughout the country and worldwide featured in museums highlighting historical processes in Baltimore, Maryland (1972) and nature photography exhibitions in Osaka, Japan (1990). Her work has been displayed at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and Art History (2017), Phoenix Art Museum (2015), and the George Eastman House (2012, 2016). Hahn's work is held in private collectors, galleries, and in permanent museum collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Center for Creative Photography and the Museum of Modern Art.

Exhibitions 1996 – George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and film, Rochester, New York 1997 – A History of Women Photographers, Akron Art Museum 1997 – Eye of the Beholder, Photographs of the Avon Collection, International Center of Photography, Midtown, New York City 1998 – Passing Shots: A Travel Series, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1998 – The City Series, Taos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 1999 – Photography Or Maybe Not, a Betty Hahn traveling retrospective, Mikhailovsky Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia 2000 – 20/20 Twentieth Century Photographic Acquisitions by 20 leading patrons, Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts 2000 – Photography Or Maybe Not, a Betty Hahn traveling retrospective, Santa Fe de Granada, Spain 2001 – In the Eyes of the Beholder: Ten Photographers View Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Hospital, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2002 – Sun Works Contemporary Alternative Photography, The Art Institute of Boston 2002 – Flowers from the Permanent Collection, The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2004 – 30th Anniversary Permanent Collection Exhibition, New Mexico State, University Art Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico 2005 – New Mexico State University Art Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico 2005 – Ace in the Hole, the legacy of Peter Walch, University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2006 – The collectible moment, Norton Simon museum, Pasadena, California 2006 – The Social Lens, University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia 2007 – Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography, A Traveling 2007 – Exhibition, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York 2008 – Flower Power: a Subversive Botanical, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2008 – Bernalillo County Arts Board Gallery, One Civic Plaza Northwest, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2008 – Giving Shelter 516 Arts Albuquerque, New Mexico (A Sister Exhibition to the Cradle Project) 2008 – Betty Hahn, Joyce Neimanas, and Judith Golden, Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2009 – Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe, Palace of the Governors, The New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2009 – Altered Land: Photography in the 1970s, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 2010 – Sole Mates Cowboy Boots & Art, New Mexico Museum of Art 2010 – Rock Scissors Paper, Anderson Contemporary Arts, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2010 – Recollection 2010, Works from the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, The Central Library, Vida Ellison Gallery, Denver, Colorado 2012 – 60 From the 60's (an exhibit of influential photos from the 1960s) George Eastman House, Rochester, New York 2012 – Albuquerque Now-Fall and Albuquerque Now-Winter, The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2013 – It's About Time: 14,000 Years of Art in New Mexico, The New Mexico Museum of Art, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2014 – Alternative Lineage – Honoring Betty Hahn; 5 Decades of Mentoring 2014 – Alternative Photographic Processes, Center for Photographic Art Carmel, California 2014 – Alternative Lineage, Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 2014 – Transformational Imagemaking, Handmade Photography Since 1960 2014 – An Exhibition Curated by Robert Hirsch, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York 2014 – Museum Project, dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2014 – American Heritage Center and Art Museum, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 2014 – Hubbard Museum of the American West, Ruidoso, New Mexico 2015 - One-Of-A-Kind, unique photographic objects from the Center of Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 2015 – Unconfined – Empowering Women Through Art, African American Performing Arts Center, New Mexico Expo, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2015 – Visualizing Albuquerque: Art of Central New Mexico, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2015 – Healing ... For the Time Being, A mixed media exhibition in conjunction with On the Map: Albuquerque Art and Design, Jonathan Abrams Maryland 2015 – The AIPAD Photography Show, Represented by Joseph Bellows Gallery, New York, New York 2016 – Transformational Imagemaking, traveling exhibition March-16- April 16; Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania 2016 – Fall-Rochester Institute of Technology, Bevier Gallery, Rochester, New York 2016 – 60 from the 60's: Selections from the George Eastman Museum, At the Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York 2016 – Transcendent Photography Betty Hahn and Patrick Nagatani Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Center, One Civic Plaza, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2016 – Look Inside: New Photographic Acquisitions, University of Texas Ransom Center, Austin, Texas 2016 – Light Works: A Century of Great Photography, Muscarelle Museum of Art, The College of William and Mary, Williamsport, Virginia 2016 – After Modernism, Beyond the Medium, Museum of New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2016 – A History of Photography, The George Eastman Museum, History of Photography Gallery, Rochester, New York

Awards National Endowment for the Arts Photographers Fellowship, $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts Photographers Fellowship, $10,000 New York State Council for the Arts $5,000 Garner, Gretchen. Disappearing witness: change in twentieth-century American photography. JHU Press, 2003. Harrison, Joan. "Colour in the gum-bichromate process: A uniquely personal aesthetic." History of Photography 17.4 (1993): pages 369–376.