A major retrospective of the work of acclaimed British photographer Hannah Starkey has opened at The Hepworth Wakefield.

Starkey was introduced to photography in difficult and unusual circumstances after she suffered a brain haemorrhage at the age of 14 which resulted in a temporary loss of speech. “I don’t remember much about it and I recovered fairly quickly but I was given a camera at that time by the nuns at my convent school,” she says. “Giving a camera to a child who has lost the ability to speak was such a thoughtful thing to do and it allowed me to start working with photography as a proper language.”

Throughout her career, Starkey’s work has focussed on women and girls and how they navigate their physical environments. She creates large-scale, carefully choreographed photographs depicting women in moments of private reflection, alienation or social interaction. More recently she has begun capturing scenes of protest – these images are not staged and are more photojournalistic in style – at demonstrations such as the 2017 Women’s March and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in London. “I have an interesting relationship with photography,” she says. “It is like someone you walk through life with who is really interesting and good company. I don’t necessarily see it as a career or a job but more like a guide through life; it has been really amazing to have something that enables you and shows you the way.”

After leaving school Starkey studied photography and film at Napier University in Edinburgh in the early 1990s and then went on to further study at the Royal College of Art in London. It was while at the RCA that she began to work with women as her subject matter. “As a young woman myself at the time, I didn’t like the imaging that I was seeing around me on billboards and advertisements, how they kept telling me how to be or behave and that’s when I decided to make images of my own and put them out in the world. It’s as simple as that. In my work I was thinking about the concept of beauty and how beauty defines women’s lives and how it came to define women in terms of success.”

In the 25 years since, Starkey has continued to explore these conversations around gender, identity, what it means to be a woman at different stages of life and how women are represented in popular culture, themes which have taken on a new resonance and urgency today. Advertising still has the power to affect how women feel about themselves and this has been amplified by the advent and rise of social media. “I think women have been hijacked,” says Starkey. “A lot of advertising and social media is selling – presenting you with a problem and a solution – to make as much profit as possible. I would like to see women and girls less undermined by our visual culture. I photograph teenage girls in a different way than the stereotype and also older women, who rarely feature in our visual culture. I find it really hard to see women of all ages lose their confidence because of this and that’s what motivates me to try and bring a counter image to what’s out there.”

Her images are carefully constructed with a narrative that is not prescriptive in any way but invites the viewer think about what might be happening outside the frame, or immediately before or after the captured moment. The intention is empowering and Starkey considers her models, who are all paid, to be collaborators in the final image. “We are creating something together,” she says. “I enjoy making art with them and they are involved in the whole process. I like to construct and compose the image, putting in little clues and codes – it is a bit like being a filmmaker.” Once the photograph is finished, Starkey sends it to the women in the image for their feedback. “I am not interested in releasing an image that they don’t like; once they say they are happy with it, it’s good to go.”

Also featured in the exhibition are new images that Starkey has created with students at Wakefield’s CAPA performing arts college. The young women can be seen in recognisable local locations and everyday situations such as at a bus stop, in a café or supermarket. “I loved working with the students – it was a great opportunity to have,” says Starkey. “My images are constructed but they come from observations of day-to-day life. Photography is such a beautiful medium – it’s complex, layered and deep.”

Another strand to the show is Starkey’s mentoring of a group of seven early career female and non-binary photographers born or based in Yorkshire to consider the issues facing emerging practitioners and to support the development of their work. The resulting images are currently on display at the Art House Wakefield in a show entitled Reframing, Reclaiming. Starkey and the Hepworth’s learning team and the young photographers also worked together with local teachers and high school students to discuss the representation of women in visual imagery to create an online resource The Guide for Girls. The guide supports critical discussion around photographing or filming yourself and others for online platforms and social media. Starkey is optimistic about the future partly because she feels that the generation of young women coming through are educating themselves about such issues. “It is about understanding the mechanisms that are manipulating us,” she says. “I think it is an exciting time to be in the world – we seem to be in a time of correction, reshaping the patriarchy. I see women as so active and so strong; I decided a long time ago to dedicate my life to photographing women and after 25 years of observing them, I think they are amazing. That gives me hope.”

Hannah Starkey: In Real Life is at the Hepworth Wakefield until April 30. Reframing Reclaiming is at the Art House Wakefield until January 8.