Between the ages of 8 and 11, Kimberly Hahn’s eyesight deteriorated from 20/20 to 20/300.  An irrational fear she was going blind led her to withhold this from her parents, causing a 3-year period in which she saw the world softly.  By the time she graduated high school at the age of 17, both eyes stabilized at 20/700.

This defect drew her to photography.  Before receiving a proper prescription, she would shoot photos of an unfocused world, but once printed she could hold the photos close and see every detail in focus.  It became a way to rebuild memories of places/experiences she could not fully discern.  Drawing on these experiences, Hahn creates photographic abstractions that function as new information to be assimilated into our visual language and become references for future visual experiences.  The brain fools us into thinking we see complete environments, when in fact visual input is more fractured than we realize. Hahn's images deconstruct these environments to represent the fleeting moments of light and color, the components our brains compile.

She pursued her interest by earning a BFA at the University of Texas at Austin in Studio Art with a focus in painting and photography and studied at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London, England.  She has produced several artist books, one based on the grid and another based on the intricate and diverse manhole covers of London.

Since her undergraduate experience, she moved on from documenting details of our environment to exploring abstraction, by taking it out of the realm of painting and bringing it into the traditionally realistic medium of photography. 

Hahn has exhibited her photographs in numerous exhibitions and galleries including Perch Gallery, Atkinson Gallery, Reynolds Gallery, the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, and most recently in the Edge Exhibition at the Channing Peake Gallery.