Sara Hannant

Sara Hannant is an artist and photographer based in London. Her practice began in the documentary tradition, which she continues to explore and expand through experimental and collaborative approaches. Since 2006, her work has investigated the complex intersections between photography, folklore, and magic. She recognises the diverse expressive possibilities of photography and uses analogue, digital and alternative processes.

Her books include Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey Through the English Ritual Year (2011), which became the subject of a Horniman Museum touring exhibition, and Of Shadows: One Hundred Objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic with Simon Costin (2016). Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in London, Barcelona, Plovdiv, Budapest, Moscow and as part of the Arles Photo Festival. This year her work is included in The Royal Photographic Society International Exhibition (IPE) 164 in Bristol and UK tour. 

In 2023, she was shortlisted for the Siena Creative Photo Awards, Fine Art: Experimental category. She also won first place in the  20th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Professional Cell Phone category for her new series It’s not me. In 2022, she won the Alternative Processes category for both the 19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award and the 18th Pollux Awards for her Dark Solace series. In 2021, she won the 17th Pollux Awards: Alternative Processes for her series Force Fields. She has also been awarded many prizes at other prestigious awards, including being selected for Best of Show, Jury Top 5 and Country Pick at the International Photography Awards in 2021 for Betwixt, which received 2nd place in the category Professional Analog/Film, Other. In 2020, she was shortlisted for PX3 Prix de la Photographie and Siena Creative Photo Awards. 

Sara’s photographs have been featured on the BBC, Zeit, Atlas Obscura and in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Profifoto, and The British Journal of Photography, among others. She studied Art in the Social Context at Dartington College of Arts in 1984, Documentary Photography at Newport Art College in 1988 and MA in Transnational Art at UAL in 2010. Since 2010 she has been a visiting lecturer at City, University of London and has also given many presentations, including at New York University, Conway Hall and Supernormal Festival.

Locations: London

Categories: Alternative process, Documentary, Fine Art, Landscape, Lecturer/tutor, Nature, Photographer, Portraiture, Still life, Workshop leader