Case Studies

Adad Hannah works within a photographic tradition that combines elements of very early photographic practices, film and video pioneers such as Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik, and the cinematographic approaches of photographers such as Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman. Largely known for extending and exploring the photographic moment by stretching it out over time using a video camera pointed at tableaux vivants, Hannah’s approach to photography and video is cinematic and focuses on the discursive possibilities of performativity and photography and how, particularly in digital video, stillness can be distilled into an extended moment.

Time and its complicated relationship to photography have been central to Hannah’s practice for more than a decade. In his new exhibition, Case Studies, Hannah has created three series of performance-based photographs and videos that explore the relationship between the human body, movement, and its photographic representations. Taking Eadweard Muybridge’s studies in human movement and motion as his starting point, this exhibition reverses Hannah’s stance to perform motion rather than stillness, joining together still images toward the illusion of movement.