FASHION STYLIST HANNAH BECK
Hannah Beck is a British fashion stylist and art director based in London. She graduated with a BA in photography, moved to Milan to work with international fashion photographers, and assisted stylists including Jacob K and Gianluca Longo. Her work is rooted in humanity, history, religion, and culture, and she creates a character before she ever pulls a single garment.
She studied photography at university rather than styling, and that distinction shows in every image she makes. Her knowledge of photographic history and art plays a huge part in her work. She describes her aesthetic as quite romantic. As a child she spent hours poring over books with pictures of children from different countries and cultures. That curiosity has never left her and has become the defining thread in her practice.
Hannah Beck I actually studied photography at university rather than styling so my knowledge of photographic history and art plays a huge part in my work. My aesthetic is quite romantic so I love the work of August Sander, Irving Penn, Sally Mann, Peter Lindbergh, and Rafael Pavarotti. I've always had a hunger to learn about anything different to what I know and have experienced. Even as a child I remember spending hours poring over books with pictures of children from different countries and cultures. I intentionally create work that looks at humanity, history, religion, and culture because my friends, my family, the city I live in and the world I've travelled is a melting pot of different nationalities and walks of life, and I want my work to represent that.
Hannah Beck As a stylist you drive the direction of the shoots because you know what the trends are and what has been on the runway. I normally have an image I want to create in my head, then I'll start researching and reading which helps me start to create a visual moodboard. By the time I've finished that I've got at least six or seven different images in my head. I can then sit down and look at the shows and see what I can make work, what shapes will lend themselves to the story, what textures will give it depth, what colours will work with my model. I definitely work in a very narrative way. I like to create a character and a story and think about what they would be doing or wearing as that character when I'm pulling the clothes.
"I like to create a character and a story and think about what they would be doing or wearing as that character when I'm pulling the clothes."
Hannah Beck I think as an industry everything has slowed down but I actually think that's a good thing. I worked on some of my favourite projects last year and they came about because I had more time on my hands, which meant the level of detail and thought I put into each image just created better images. There's a fine line between doing the right amount of big commercial jobs which pay the bills and doing the editorial jobs which I love and can be creative with. When the commercial companies stopped shooting due to Covid it meant I had more time to think about my personal projects, shoots that I really wanted to create and spend days researching.
Hannah Beck That's a difficult one because so much of who I am as an artist is looking back at history, so many of the people who are iconic for me are not of our time. However, I think there's been an incredible shift in the industry over the last few years with people such as Campbell Addy and Rafael Pavarotti creating what is for me really iconic work because it's deeply rooted in their culture and who they are as people, and showing that it has a place in the fashion world.
