Hannah Carpenter Pitkin is a queer artist living in Central Vermont, where she expresses her creativity through photography, painting, and mixed media art. With a passion for artistic expression that began in childhood, Hannah came into her artistic own during her teenage years, focusing on black and white photography through an independent study program at her high school. Her father transformed the milk house in their barn into a darkroom using equipment handed down from his own father. This unique space became Hannah's sanctuary, where she spent countless hours immersed in the magic of analogue photography, and large scale acrylic paintings. Under the mentorship of portrait artist and historian Ethan Hubbard and Vermont photographer Andrew Klein, Hannah deepened her love and wonder for the photographic medium.

 

After graduating high school, she pursued a degree in Studio Art and Jazz at the University of Vermont before completing her Individualized Bachelor of Arts in Photographic Theory and Technique at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. During this transformative period, she learned the wet plate collodion photography technique from renowned photographer Jill Enfield in New York City, further fueling her passion for the art form. Hannah’s college years were marked by a strong commitment to social activism, particularly as a photographic documentarian and archivist with Combat Papermakers. She embarked on two cross-country tours with them, collaborating with veterans and students through art therapy programs, capturing their experiences on camera. Over the years, she has received numerous commissions for analog and digital portraits, maternity shoots, weddings, and live music and art performances. Her paintings have found homes across the country.

 

Her work centers on the inevitability of change, the lusciousness of life, and a somewhat raw look at death and discomfort. She questions how our perceptions of life and death inform our ability to be grounded and curious about our earthly experience, while simultaneously recognizing elements of magic within that experience. For Hannah, art serves as a vital source of processing and therapy; it offers her a lens through which to navigate her place in the world, providing purpose and meaning. Characterized by an outgoing and bright demeanor balanced with a thoughtful and private nature, Hannah’s art reflects the complexity of her varied life experiences, from deeply painful to spectacular to highly curious. Her diverse body of work includes large-scale acrylic and mixed media paintings, hide tanning and leather-work, wet plate collodion photography, 35mm and 120mm film photography, and alternative process printing, with a distinct preference for the tangible authenticity of analogue processes. As an artist in her mid-thirties, Hannah has witnessed the transition from a predominantly analogue world to an obsessively digital one, often expressing a yearning for emotional depth and intentionality in her creations. This longing propels her to increasingly embrace analogue forms of creativity, countering her discomfort with digital mediums. She is primarily focused on her work with the wet plate collodion process, and alternative process printing.

 

Currently residing in Vermont with her wife and child, Hannah continues to explore the beauty of the natural world while dedicating herself to her artistic practice, infusing her work with the sincerity of her personal journey, and building community with neighbors and creatives.