LEONORA HAMILL

She received her MPhil and her MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2011 and 2008. Born in Paris in 1978, she trained as an art historian at the Courtauld Institute in London and at the University of Oxford. She graduated from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2003.

Hamill is the 2012 winner of the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie and was the 2011 artist-in-residence at the Psychiatric Hospital of Rouffach in Alsace, France.
Her series Art in Progress is a comment on the way art is made in certain countries perceived today as emerging powerhouses on the art scene. The institution of the art-school is seminal. She photographs empty classrooms within these institutions, spaces marked with the richness of the activity of art students, yet devoid of human presence, spaces that address the question of whether a collective consciousness exists amongst these artists.

Her images explore the rich nuances of the art school system and encapsulate the regimentation of institutional architecture while remaining distinctly human spaces. The activities enacted in these spaces are premised on the balancing of individual versus collective experience, they question the traditional perception of the artist as an individual creator and focus on the collective aspect of the process of making art.

1978 Born in Paris
Lives and works in London and Milan

2011
MPhil in Photography, Royal College of Art, London

2008
Masters in Photography, Royal College of Art, London

2003
Diploma, International Center of Photography, New York

1999
MSt in the History of Art and Visual Culture, University of Oxford, Oxford

1996
BA (Hons) in History of Art, The Courtauld Institute, London

Awards

HSBC Prix de la Photographie 2012, Winner, Paris
Man Group Photography Prize 2008, Winner 3rd Prize, London
Man Group Photography Prize 2007, Shortlisted, London
Photo Espana 2007 Descubrimientos, Finalist, Madrid
Leica Prix 2007, Finalist, Bielefeld
Flash Forward 2007, Honourable Mention, Magenta Publishing for the Arts, Toronto
Rencontres d’Arles 2006, Photo Folio Gallery Award Laureate