Hal Hirshorn

Harold Timothy Hirshorn (January 12, 1965 – February 4, 2025) was an American painter and photographer. Born in Philadelphia, his family often moved due to his father being a Foreign Service Officer. His mother Anne was an art historian and Hirshorn later credited her for influencing his work. He attended Bennington College to study art history and architecture, but dropped out. He briefly studied in Venice with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. He moved to New York City in 1989. Notable projects included 2011 recreations of 19th-century funerals, including a series on the 1865 funeral of Seabury Tredwell, a wealthy Manhattanite. Hirshorn's work is characterized by its analog approach, often using antique camera parts and long-exposure techniques to achieve effects. Landscapes employed muted, earthy colors, while his photographic work often staged historical or domestic scenes. He occasionally incorporated theatrical elements, such as makeup, to enhance verisimilitude in his photographs. In 2024, Hirshorn began a project at Pierce Chapel African Cemetery in Midland, Georgia, creating salt prints of staged commemorative funerals for enslaved people buried there. He died before developing the negatives, but collaborators have continued the project posthumously. Hirshorn died aged 60 in Manhattan. His sister said he died of coronary artery disease.