HANNAH ALTMAN

"Altman’s use of tension pulls the viewer into a deeper understanding of Jewish thought, folklore, and metaphor. The photographs are not only thought provoking, they’re paradoxical.

In regards to her work, Altman writes, 'To approach an image in this way is not only to ask what it looks like but asks: what does it remember like?' 

Photographing cultural and generational memory, along with its religious ties presents opportunities for metaphor and symbolism. However, Altman’s work goes further to show us the central paradox of photography. Kavana personalizes something as big as religion while using something as precise as a camera to create mysteries."

—Daniel Seth Krauss, Hannah Altman’s Photobook Kavana: Picturing Jewish Generational Memory, 2022