All personal images @ hannah kozak U.S. Copyright Office registration
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 eight Nazi forced labor camps and began instinctively capturing images of dogs, flowers, family and friends that felt honest and real. As a teenager growing up in Los Angeles, Hannah would sneak onto movie lots and snap photos on the sets of Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch and Family, selling star images to movie magazines and discovering a world that was far from reality.
While working in a camera store at the age of twenty, Hannah’s life changed when she met a successful stuntwoman who became her mentor and helped her start a career in stunts. For over 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.
Her wanderlust and career in the film business afforded Hannah the opportunity to travel from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Guatemala and Peru to Egypt, Italy, Israel and India, capturing images of far away lands and exploring the innocence and truth found in the faces of children from around the world.
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. Photography has the power to heal and to help us through difficult periods, something Hannah Kozak knows first hand from personal experience.
New Mexico Holocaust Museum in conjunction with Jewish Community Center of Albuquerque Survivor: My Father's Ghosts April 1 - May 15, 2022
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust Survivor: My Father's Ghosts May 20 - August 31, 2018
Group Exhibitions
2022
Imago Lisboa "Disturbances" October 6 - Nov 11, 2022 He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard
The Curated Fridge Summer 2022 Show Searching for Michael Jackson
The Hive Gallery Pixel Popcorn (Eye Candy for the People) March 5 - April 2, 2022
2021
Gallery FotoNostrum Melancholia Barcelona, Spain
JKC Gallery/Trenton Hall Trenton, New Jersey June 14 – September 14 Photography and Trauma
The Hive Gallery March 6 – March 27 California Love – A Visual Mixtape part 2
FotoNostrom - Julia Margaret Cameron Awards 14th Edition Barcelona, Spain March 4 - April 29, 2020
Hive Gallery - 5th Annual Photo Show Alternative Processes Los Angeles, California March 9 - April 1, 2019
The Curated Fridge Spring 2019 He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard
5th Edition of Fine Art and Documentary Photography Biennial Space Nau Bostik Barcelona, Spain October 4 - 21, 2018
The Hive Gallery 4th Annual Photo Show Analog vs. Digital Los Angeles, California March 3 - March 31, 2018
Galeria Valid Foto, Barcelona, Spain Julia Margaret Cameron Awards 10th Edition October 3 - 14, 2017
Hive Gallery - Naked vs. Nude: Los Angeles, California March 4 - April 1, 2017
Month of Photography Los Angeles, 4th Annual Analogue Portrait Project Aesthesia Studios, Culver City January 22, 2017
Photo LA, The Reef: Samy's Camera Exhibition January 13-15, 2017
4th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography: European Month of Photography: Berlin Foto Biennial 2016. Palazzo Italia : Berlin, Germany October 6 - 30, 2016
Duncan Miller Gallery: Photo Art Fair: Santa Monica, California 30 July 2016
Mujeres de Maiz One: Mind, Body and Spirit 19th Anniversary Live Art Show. Los Angeles, CA 6 March 2016
Early Works: Photographic Resource Center: Boston, MA, January 22 - February 18, 2015
Scott Nichols Gallery, Women: Seeing and Being Seen. San Francisco, CA Sept 4 - Nov 29, 2014
3rd Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Heritage Municipal Museum, Málaga, Spain: September 18 - November 9, 2014
Early Works: Sol Mednick Gallery, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA August 22 - Sept 18, 2014
Early Works: The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Co, February 7 - March 1, 2014
Early Works: Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon, April 5, 2013 - April 28, 2013
Early Works: Ray Ko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA, 2013, October 17 - November 17, 2013
Perfect Exposure, The Next, Emerging LA Artists, Los Angeles, CA 2012
Perceptions 2012, Julia Dean Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2012
Recognition
Julia Margaret Cameron Award 2020- Honorable Mentions (2) FotoEvidence W Book Award with World Press Photo-Finalist – 2019 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Women Seen By Women, Honorable Mention Devotion - 3 images - 2019 Women Seen by Women Award, 2018, Finalist: Jules Triptych, 2017 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 10th Edition, Documentary Series : He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard, 2017 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 10th Edition, Finalist: single photo for Children, 2017 CDS/Honickman Duke University First Book in Photography Prize, He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard semi finalist, 2016 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 8th Edition, Finalist: People, 2015 Your Daily Photograph, Michael Jackson Memorial Tree in Budapest, Nov 24, 2015 (Out of Element) Your Daily Photograph, Pain and Loneliness #9, July 28, 2015 (First Place) Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 7th Edition, Finalist: Being Mother, 2015 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 7th Edition, Finalist: Nude, 2015 CDS/Honickman Duke University First Book in Photography Prize, He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard finalist, 2014 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 6th Edition, 1st Prize - single photo for Children, March 2014 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 6th Edition, 1st Prize - single photo Documentary for Forgiveness and Compassion, March 2014 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, 5th Edition, Female Photographer of the Year, Nudes-Pain and Loneliness, September 2013 Critical Mass Finalist, 2012 - Forgiveness and Compassion
Artist in Residence
“¿Quién Puede Vivir en Esta Casa?” Internacional Residence Zona Imaginaria, San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2011
Publications
Black and White Magazine UK Issue 250 : March 24, 2021 Photojournalism Nights 11th Edition: March 24, 2021 How Often Does A Photograph Deeply Move You: March 24, 2021 Book Review: FRAMES Magazine by W. Scott Olsen: March 22, 2021 Real Photo Show Podcast : February 13, 2021 Apple Podcast Exprésate con Lourdes Episodio 25: La verdad en el amor Lucie Foundation Short List First Photobook of 2020 Highlighting Success Stories by Women Visual Storytellers & Journalists in 2020 Women Photograph : Photobooks of 2020 Buzzfeed: Here Are The 20 Photo Books We Loved in The Very Exhausting Year of 2020 Buzzfeed: Photos Show The Devastating Long-Term Effects of Domestic Violence: Nov 28, 2020 PhotoBook Journal Interesting Artist and Photographic Books for 2020: The Karma Train Has Made A Stop : Oct 21, 2020 Girl Talk HQ: Oct 16, 2020 VII Interactive Book Club: October 8, 2020 VII Interactive Book Club announcement: Oct 8, 2020 Infobae: Spanish El último golpe fue demasiado: Sept 29, 2020 Arts Kobini: Sept 22, 2020 Los Angeles Times: 35 Years In a Dungeon: The long-term effects of intimate partner violence we don't talk about: Sept 20, 2020 Photobook Journal : August 10, 2020 Photojournalism Now : July 31, 2020 Around The Lens Podcast w/David J. Murphy: July 27, 2020 Women's enews: July 23, 2020 All About Photo.com : July 18, 2020 Der Spiegel - Domestic Violence: Oct 18, 2019 Shifter by Dan Milnor: Create by Hannah Kozak: October 16, 2019 American Photography Pro Photo Daily: October 10, 2019 Around The Lens Podcast w/David J. Murphy : Oct 7, 2019 Lenscratch: He Threw The Last Punch Too Hard: Sept 25, 2019 Edge of Humanity: He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard : Sept 21, 2019 Lenscratch: Melvin Sokolsky interviewed by Hannah kozak: June 25, 2018 W Magazine: 18 Photographers share portraits of their Dads: June 17, 2018 Auschwitz Memoria Magazine - Issue Number 8: May 2018 Forbes Magazine - Survivor: My Father's Ghosts : May 29, 2018 The Jewish Journal - Survivor: My Father's Ghosts - May 16, 2018 Lenscratch - Survivor: My Father's Ghosts - May 11, 2018 Edge of Humanity: Imprisonment of a Woman's Soul - July 25, 2016 FujiLove: Winter in Warsaw - Dec 2015 AI-AP: Having the camera gave me protection and connection simultaneously Jan 5, 2016 The Editorial Magazine Issue 12 - A Conversation with Hannah Kozak Monovisions - Interview with Black and White photographer Hannah Kozak June 25, 2015 Portraits of Unknown, He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard, Dec 2014 Lenscratch, My Mother's Dolls, October 14, 2014 Nailed Magazine, Pain and Loneliness, August 18, 2014 PH Magazine, Nude is Not Porn, Pain and Loneliness, March 2014 Tamron: How to take emotional travel photos Mull It Over Interviews Hannah Kozak Adore Noir Issue number 7 – Pain and Loneliness, April 1, 2012 Lenscratch – Forgiveness and Compassion, October 10, 2011
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts with concentration in Spanish Cal State University at Northridge, 1997
Master of Arts, Psychology University of Santa Monica, 2008