Occult forces of nature are evoked in antique magic lantern slides of British landscapes. These picturesque views are seemingly inhabited by psychic phenomena. Decay and disintegration merge with the image on the glass forming patterns shaped like roots, leaves and ectoplasmic fissures, reclaiming the mechanical capture to become a sensory language that is used to describe a newly imagined and haunted landscape. Some of the marks appear corrosive pointing to an intrusion or imbalance with the natural world alluding to our environmentally challenged existence.
Sara Hannant's photographic practice is open to the unexpected, the uncanny, and the unseen. Her work is informed and transformed by witchcraft, magic, and folklore. She recognises the diverse expressive qualities of photography and uses analogue, digital, and alternative processes.
Her books include 'Of Shadows: One Hundred Objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic' (Strange Attractor Press, 2017) and 'Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey through the English Ritual Year' (Merrell, 2011), which became a Horniman Museum touring exhibition.
Awards 2023 Siena Creative Photo Awards, Fine Art: Experimental, Shortlisted
2023 20th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Professional Cell Phone Series, Winner
2022 19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Alternative Processes Series, Winner
2022 18th Pollux Awards, Alternative Processes, Series, Winner
2022 17th Pollux Awards, Alternative Processes, Series, Winner
2022 18th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Alternative Processes, Series, Runner-up
2021 17th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Alternative Processes, Series, Runner-up
2021 Selected Best of Show International Photography Awards, IPA Jury Top 5 and Country Pick: United Kingdom
2021 International Photography Awards, Professional Analog/Film, Other, 2nd Place
2021 PX3 – Prix de la Photographie, Paris, Fine Art, Nature, Honourable Mention
2020 15th Pollux Awards, Alternative Processes Series, Winner
2020 Siena Creative Photo Awards 2020, Shortlist
2019 British Photography Awards, Documentary Photography, Shortlist
2019 British Life Photography Awards 2018, Urban Life, Documentary Series, and Photojournalism, Shortlist
