HANNAH SMITH ALLEN

Statement & Biography

For the past decade, Hannah Smith Allen’s artwork has focused on ideas of war and nationhood. Whether she photographs a Revolutionary War site, examines the U.S./Mexico border, or contemplates how photography mediates her understanding of events in Iraq and Afghanistan, Allen examines how images of conflict and contested lands shape the American psyche and history.

Allen is the recipient of a 2007 Individual Photographer’s Fellowship from the Aaron Siskind Foundation, a 2010 Artist Fellowship in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a 2011 A.I.M. fellowship at the Bronx Museum of Art. She has participated in residencies at A.I.R Gallery and The Lower East Side Printshop, and her artwork has been exhibited at venues nationwide, such as Phoenix Art Museum, Wave Hill Cultural Center, and SF Camerawork. Her writings on contemporary photography have appeared in American Photo and Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism.

Allen is an Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Media at Adelphi University and holds degrees in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and Rhode Island School of Design. Her book Borderlands will be available via the VSW Press in late February 2021.