Background
Betty Hahn was born on October 11, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Betty Hahn was born on October 11, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
At the age of ten, Betty Hahn was given her first camera by an aunt. She later on went to graduate from Scecina Memorial Catholic High School. Soon after, Betty Hahn enrolled at Indiana University with a full scholarship where she furthered her studies in Fine Arts, receiving both her Bachelor of Fine Arts (1963) and her Master of Fine Arts (1966).
Throughout her undergraduate years, she concentrated in drawing and painting; however, as she entered graduate study, she worked in photography.
Once Betty Hahn graduated, she moved to Rochester where she taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology until 1975. Hahn then relocated to Albuquerque where she was professor at University of New Mexico until her retirement in 1997.
In her work, Betty Hahn delivers a powerful message in regards to women and embroidery. It is quite evident through time that women's labor is needlework, and that their labor is frequently undervalued both when dissimilar and alike to men's work. By incorporating embroidery and stitching, Betty Hahn pushes the audience to acknowledge the work of women not as craft or tradition, but as meticulous, creative and unique.