Hanna Lautreamont: “What matters is that something remains with the viewer.”
Hi Hanna. Can you tell us what experience first made you realise you were an artist?
I don’t think there was a single moment of realisation. If anything, my first exhibition in Cadaqués, Catalonia, made me more aware of the distance between making works and becoming aware of them. Seeing the work outside of a private context changes it; it becomes something independent, something you are no longer fully in control of. I’m still cautious about defining myself too clearly. It feels more accurate to think of it as an ongoing process rather than a fixed identity.
What does a typical day look like for you — in work and in life?
There isn’t really a fixed routine; my daily schedule depends on the stage of a project. Some days are structured around shooting and working with people, which requires a very outward energy. Others are much more internal and include developing ideas, researching, or building visual references. A significant part of my time is spent printing, either in the darkroom or working on photogravures in the workshop, where the process becomes slower and more tactile.
Alongside my own work, I maintain a freelance practice, so there’s a constant negotiation between personal projects and commissioned work. Outside of that, I try to stay engaged with other forms of art and with people by visiting galleries, reading, or having conversations with friends.
What do you struggle with the most in your creative work, and how do you confront it?
One of the main challenges in my practice is recognising when an image is complete. Because I work with analogue and hand-printing processes, there is always the possibility to continue refining, adjusting, re-printing, and reworking prints. The difficulty lies in understanding when those interventions still contribute to the image, and when they begin to take something away. I try to approach this by allowing distance. My method is stepping away from the work and returning to it with a clearer perspective. It’s less about producing a perfect image and more about preserving the essence of the image at the point when it feels most resolved.
Which ideas, people, or works have most influenced the way you think?
The people around me have a strong influence on how I think and work. I’m surrounded by individuals who are deeply committed to their own practices, and that level of focus sets a certain standard, which pushes me to be more precise and honest in what I do. Literature and poetry are central to my approach. My background in literature influences how I construct images. I’m interested in suggestions rather than direct statements, in atmosphere rather than explanation.
If you could change one thing about how people experience your work, what would it be?
It’s crucial for me that the viewer is given conceptual and physical space to look, to interpret, and to form their own response. I don’t intend my work to communicate fixed meanings. I hope my works may stage a moment of encounter and introspection, instead. What matters is that something remains with the viewer, whether that’s a feeling or a question.
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