Lady Beetle, 2025
A photograph designed and inspired from one of my anonymous sticker responses back in March about a somatic reaction to a spider bite and all the nightmarish feelings around it - some personal automatic writing (see end) and a brilliant metaphor from my friend Kim. A photograph about the materiality of shame, listening to one another, jealousy, residues, shadows, retrospection
Thank you to Donglin and Reece and Kim
Automatic writing at the end:
"Kim spoke to me a while back about the shock that the body takes when a spider bite’s venom swims into the body’s stream. I felt it itch, pang, laugh, write through my blood stream, I ruminated, decimated, felt that sticky hot injustice whilst cradled over on an airport floor with limited modes of expression. It happened again and again, I asked, “What must I be doing to continue to receive these incessant attacks?” An interest in two realities. A phone call in June and the weight off of my shoulders when that door closed. Baths with wine and giggles and silver rings in march time. Kim carried on explaining and, as the message settled like winter dew on grass, the bites lost their sensations and water sloshed over my legs, my arms. My head and a thick blanket of warmth in cemented listened to words. I extended my arm out, beady eyed and watching the spider constrained to her plucked pinches, stared. Kim saw too, and, in spite of, laughed, painting her nails and lighting a candle."
Installation shots of my solo photographic show 'In Light of Waking' that was held in Central Court, @leedsartgallery on the 17th and 18th of January as a part of The Accelerator Bursary, supported by @assembly_leeds and delivered by @leedsartgallery in partnership with @leedsartfund
Wow! Thank you to everyone who came along to my show this passing weekend! The turnout was incredible and so many lovely conversations were had. Feeling eternally grateful
The last year of my photographic practice involved receiving multiple dream submissions on topics including romance, the cost of living, employment, gentrification in South Leeds, friendship, and family issues from January to December. All were rooted in financial instability, relationships to health, and changing economic landscapes, and oftentimes detailed the associated feelings around these processes and how they manifested in other waking relationships. The themes were rich and nuanced, varying from dream to dream, with some being very mundane and others detailed in length and content. My show also included workshops, allowing people to engage and share dreams through collage, text, and drawings. I even used old rejected photographs in the collage piles as a way to reuse their compositions for new work.
All of this could not have been possible without allllll the brilliant support I received. Firstly, big big thanks to Archie Brooks for assembling and building the structures that held my light boxes. The challenge of no wall installation meant lots of interesting conversations around ‘sculpturally’ installing the work (something which my 2D light box brain has never fully considered). Thanks to Alec @freshaire_ltd from Fresh Aire for the most beautiful quality duratran prints. Thanks to the wonderful Matt for helping install the work too on Thursday and Friday and the wonderful team at LAG for believing in the work too and allowing it to breathe for a crazy weekend!
I am deeply grateful to everyone who submitted a dream at any point and for their presence in the room. The turnout and engagement were beyond anything I could have imagined…12 year old me is in awe! Watch out for prints and zine posts soon.
I am very excited to announce 'In Light of Waking' my two day solo presentation of new photographic work which will be exhibited in Central Court in Leeds Art Gallery this January on Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th.
Is there a nighttime dream you want to share? This may be the opportunity.
This new body of work visually compiles an array of anonymously submitted dreams that I have personally connected with and built on from in October - December.
These texts have been translated into collage and worked through in conversation from June to December.
Apart of this new display is an opportunity to get involved with a currently building body of photographic work. I am inviting everyone and anyone with a dream to come down and share in all its lengthiness, detail, any themes welcomed. There will be paper, collage, pens, and prompts to respond to....
With big thanks to those who submitted to the open call and for both teams at Assembly House and Leeds Art Gallery for such a wondrous opportunity as apart of The Accelerator Bursary!
H x
Press release text on slides, link in bio to website
Accolade, March 2026
Some new work from earlier this year, with the wonderful @megan.mcclean.studio sitting in. The image comes from thinking about what it means to have achieved personal growth through sacrifice, but not being interested in claiming that as an achievement as a part of your identity anymore. It is in the interest of moving on and away from. I very much felt that planning and then eventually staging that idea, the style feels relevant to that too...
This is to be apart of a small photobook that is currently in the works, featuring some new and old works - I am very excited to share more soon⭐️ if anyone is interested in sharing ideas I am more than open! Prints available as per usual too.
It was such a pleasure to be asked by @curator.angie last October to show my photographs produced in my accelerator bursary year in Playspace in @leedsartgallery , alongside work by @pyramid_arts and brilliant pieces and mural by LAG's Youth Collective.
The work has been up since November and comes to a close next week, the last day being the 19th. All works in Playspace were made or selected in reference to Atkinson Grimshaw's work, and is a response to Nocturnes in the main gallery section. It's a really lovely curated friendly and vibrant space with gorgeous work in⭐️including a fab mural I forgot to photograph.
See In Light of Waking by Hannah Guy as part of the FOTO Street Gallery open from 9th March - April 2026.
Hannah is a Leeds-based fine art photographer working with dreams as a site of image-making and inquiry. Her practice unfolds through empathy, collaboration, and attentive listening. Images emerge from the textures of dreams, conversations with family and friends, collaged memories, fleeting impressions, and fragments shared by others.
In Light of Waking comprises ten long-exposure photographs developed from 78 anonymous dream submissions collected across Beeston, Hyde Park, Headingley, and Leeds city centre. The series presents a tapestry of dreams across Leeds, treating them as social texts and exploring how individual nocturnal experiences intersect with collective emotional life. Each photograph is created through staged tableaux, translating fragments of anonymous participants’ written dreams into visual form.
FOTO street gallery is a new permanent exhibition space and collaboration between Barnsley FOTO Collective and Barnsley Civic. The full line up of exhibiting artists includes; Hannah Guy, Christopher Manson, Karina Lax, Holly Rowan Hesson, Emilia Ashby, Lāsma Poiša and Paul Crawley.
FOTO 2026 is made possible and supported using public funding by Arts Council England, alongside funding and support from our festival partners Barnsley Council, Barnsley Civic and Photoworks’ Photography Champions Programme.
@hannahguyartwork@aceagrams@photoworks.lab@barnsleycivic@barnsleycouncilofficial
Drawing plan for House Without Bricks, 2026 mounted and framed beautifully by @picturesplusuk and Lady Beetle, 2025 printed by @freshaire_ltd on Duratran on my handmade timber light box, pictured in The Big Love show @hydeparkartclub@hydeparkbookclub
Sometimes I draw for my photos as a visual plan, which are often left in my studio and seen as transitions from thoughts to photo to understand initial composition and colours, space, thoughts, feelings. Sometimes they reference other painterly influences and will then influence the way I choose to stage my images but I never really show them for their stark difference to my photographs. I was so excited and nervous to be asked for a drawing alongside my Light box print 'Lady Beetle' for this exciting show! Go and check it out ❤️🔥
I am delighted and so thrilled to announce that I will be participating in Barnsley's FOTO festival showcasing a selection of my new work on an outdoor display in their new FOTO street gallery by Barnsley Civic💡running from the 9th of March 2026 - 21st of April 2026! Alongside some amazing photographers... Massive thanks to @barnsleyfotocollective ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ more to share soon...
Supported by @photoworks_uk@barnsleycivic@barnsleyfotocollective
Super excited to have two pieces of mine in @georgeartgreg 's big love show❤️🔥 at hyde park book club @hydeparkbookclub@hydeparkartclub
the work will be exhibiting alongside an array of gorgeous works from the 14th of feb (tomorrow!) until the 14th of April :) there's also a publication you can buy alongside the show! Check George's bio for the link 🔗 such a gorgeous show....come on down
Kirkstall Road, 2025
Originally exhibited on duratran print (printed by @freshaire_ltd ) on my handmade light box in my show 'In Light of Waking' in @leedsartgallery on the 17th and 18th of January.
The new developments along Kirkstall Road and in South Leeds are growing very quickly, and this has shown up in a number of anonymous dream submissions that l've been working with and responding to photographically over the past year. A lot of these dreams were shaped by the emotional memory of change, and sometimes just the threat of it, alongside the sensory ebbs and flows that are so common in tense dream states.
With ongoing changes to city planning in Leeds and the rising cost of living, it felt unsurprising that themes of gentrification kept coming up, along with a shared feeling that both longstanding and newer communities are often overlooked in wider planning decisions. A dream was submitted about feeling like a pawn to the council's planning decisions in the favour of student accom. This feeling is made stronger by the pressure on the arts, with gig venues and cultural spaces continuing to close as creatives widely know. Walking beside the canal, it's really hard to ignore all the new developments. It was surprisingly still open as a building site which made it brilliant to stage the image with all the clunking and clatter in the background. These dreams are important to raise and visually create in the sense that there are important questions about the future of Leeds for its communities and its creative scene.
Thanks to George @georgeartgreg and Em @emilymaryeve for playing a brilliant game of chess and Skyla @skyla.isabella.art for being a gracious umbrella holder (it was very wet) x x x
You sleep with a dream of counting summer weather, 2026
I often speak amongst my friends about the uncertainty of money amidst current economic pressures. To make this image, a lot was based on my own dreams and anonymous nightmares submitted revolving around the cost of living both in the interest of landlords, the art sector and our current government. Interestingly, this was my most received dream theme after romantic relations.
This image speaks to the individual narratives that I received, and I felt, spoke so largely and evocatively to and of the concept of Social Dreaming, which argues we all experience similar night time fears and what happens if we begin to talk on them? It champions an interest in epistemic justice.
Fear to me felt like pockets in quite a large maze, and I imagined what would happen if light was to be shone and how suddenly narratives start to connect in plein air.
This image was exhibited in Leeds Art Gallery @leedsartgallery as a part of my show, ‘In Light of Waking’ and was one of my favourite pieces. It was completely transformed being backlit by my handmade light box and print by Alec @freshaire_ltd
Massive thanks to Niamh for helping to shoot and model with this with no trigger flash! What a mess x
A reminder that my two day solo show, 'In Light of Waking' in Central Court @leedsartgallery continues tomorrow for the last day, 11-3pm. Please come along and feel free to sit and share a dream ⭐️ thank you to everyone who has been along today and shared such kind words! It has been surreal
Prints by @freshaire_ltd
Structures by @archiebrooksart
Light boxes by myself and Gary Collins
