Kerstin Hacker is a photojournalist and has worked for major Non-Governmental Organizations and newspapers, and her work is exhibited internationally.
Hacker is a recipient of the Agfa/Emma Female Photojournalist of the Year Award and is an Alexia Foundation alumna and is a Fellow of the Centre for Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity in the UK.
Her research interests explore the changing perception, representation and visual self-governance in Africa. Her current research explores the emerging middle class in Lusaka, Zambia. She is photographing the emergence of a section of society, which is internationally aware, has travel experience and is politically active. The project also documents the westernisation of Lusaka with a developing consumer culture. It investigates how the widening access of the internet accelerates this change.
Kerstin Hacker examines photographically the impact of this development and asks why this change is rarely discussed in the UK. The study presents an alternative vision of ordinary, 21st century African life to the UK general public’s view. Since visual representations are often static and are shaped by the UK’s colonial past, the project examines if and how photography can contribute to a new, more dynamic understanding of the rapid economic and societal development of Zambia.
Kerstin Hacker was born in Bavaria/Germany in 1968. She holds a BA and MA from FAMU (Academy of Applied Arts), Prague, Czech Republic. Since 2008 she is Head of Photography at the Cambridge School of Art and leads the BA and MA courses.
