Hannah Kozak was born to a Polish father and a Guatemalan mother in Los Angeles, California. At the age of ten, she was given a Kodak Brownie camera by her father, Sol, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps and began instinctively capturing images of dogs, flowers, family and friends that felt honest and real.
While working in a camera store at the age of twenty, Hannah’s life changed when she met a successful stuntwoman named Victoria Vanderkloot who became her mentor and helped her start a career in stunts. For nearly twenty-five years, Hannah’s work provided the opportunity to work with notable directors such as Michael Cimino, David Lynch, Mike Nichols, Tim Burton and Michael Bay. She worked as a stunt double for celebrated stars like Cher, Angelina Jolie, Lara Flynn Boyle and Isabella Rossellini. On every set, Hannah took her camera to work, capturing candid, behind-the-scene pictures that penetrated the illusion of Hollywood magic.
Hannah has turned the camera on herself, her life and her world. She continues to look for those things that feel honest and real, using her camera as a means of exploring feelings and emotions. After decades of standing in for someone else, she now is in control of her destiny and vision.
Hannah is an autobiographical photographer. Her subjects are the people and places that touch her emotionally. She has been photographing people and places for four decades.
“I use my camera as a means of exploring my feelings and emotions. My photos are my emotional predicaments. When someone allows me to photograph them, they give me a piece of themselves that I can forever hold onto. In moments of melancholic desire and solitude, I can feel them again from the connection of our photos. My photographs are direct, honest and without pretense. I love natural light. Artificial lighting is a travesty of reality.”
“I think the artist’s job is to show us the parts of ourselves we keep hidden from others. I create pictures of love, passion, hope, fear, abuse, heartbreak, acceptance, resurrection, rebirth. I paint life. I dream, hope, need and desire to create something about our world with my expression.”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Survivor: My Father’s Ghosts
May 20 – August 31, 2018
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
The Hive Gallery
March 6 – March 27
California Love – A Visual Mixtape part 2
Gallery FotoNostrum
Melancholia
Barcelona, Spain
JKC Gallery/Trenton Hall
Trenton, New Jersey
June 14 – September 14
Photography and Trauma
2020
Gallery FotoNostrum
March 4 – 28
1st Prize Documentary Series
He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard
The Hive Gallery
March 7 – March 28
California Love
2019
The Curated Fridge
Spring 2019
He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard – 1 image
Hive Gallery
5th Annual Photo Exhibit
March 9 – April 1, 2019
2018
5th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography
Space Nau Bostik, Barcelona
October 4-21, 2018
The Hive Gallery 4th Annual Photo Show
Los Angeles, California
March 3 – March 31, 2018
2017
Galeria Valid Foto, Barcelona, Spain
Julia Margaret Cameron 10th Edition
October 3 – 14, 2017
Month of Photography Los Angeles,
4th Annual Analogue Portrait Project
Analogue Portrait Show - Aesthesia Studios –
Los Angeles, CA
January 22, 2017
Hive Gallery – Naked vs. Nude
729 S. Spring Street.
Los Angeles, CA
March 4 – April 1, 2017
Photo LA, The Reef
Samy’s Camera Exhibition
Jan 13-15
2016
4th Biennial of Photography Berlin, Germany
Palazzo Italia – Berlin, Germany
October 4 – Oct 29, 2016
Mujeres de Maiz One: Mind, Body and Spirit show 19th Anniversary Live Art Show
1300 E 1st Street. Los Angeles, CA 90033
March 6, 2016
2015
Early Works, Photographic Resource Center: Boston University
832 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 01215
2014
3rd Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Malaga, Spain
September 18 – November 9, 2014
Women: Seeing and Being Seen – Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco, California
September 4 – November 29, 2014
Early Works Show, Sol Mednick Gallery – University of the Arts, Philadelphia
August 22 – September 19, 2014
Early Works Show, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
Feb 7 – March 1, 2014
2013
Early Works Exhibit, RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco
Oct 17 – Nov 17, 2013
Early Works Exhibit, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon
April 5, 2013 – April 28, 2013
2012
Perfect Exposure, The Next, Emerging LA Artists, 2012
Perceptions 2012, Julia Dean Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
RECOGNITIONS
FotoEvidence W Book Award with World Press Photo-Finalist – 2019
Julia Margaret Cameron Award
Women Seen By Women
Honorable Mention
Devotion – 3 images - 2019
Julia Margaret Cameron Award – 13th Edition,
Women Seen by Women - The Photography Gala Awards
Finalist
Jules – 3 images
Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 10th Edition, Finalist Children’s single image,
Children in Warsaw, Poland
Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 10th Edition, 1st Prize Docume
