Margaret Hanson

In this series, I adopt the persona of Margaret Hanson, a fictional figure navigating the aesthetics of regional politics. These portraits mimic the typical campaign mailers and local news headers. The work explores the standard female American politician’s uniform prevalent in American politics with the specific, often dated choices that signal certain values. Margaret Hanson questions how much of our political identity and performance is built on a foundation of carefully managed visual cues.

The character "Margaret Hanson" is close to the real thing, but these photographs, especially with the outtakes and similar poses and backgrounds, feel slightly off, just enough to make the viewer realize they are looking at a performance of a persona, rather than a person.