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Adam Hahn produces portraits that are blurred... for a reason

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What if your view of the world was always blurred? That is what North London artist Adam Hahn wants visitors to his new show to ponder. Launched last week, the portrait exhibition aims to convey how people with macular degeneration (MD) — a condition which causes seriously blurred vision and blindness — see through a foggy haze.

Mr Hahn, 29, has spent the past year talking to sufferers and his exhibition features portraits of them as they would see themselves. He created the show to promote awareness of the degenerative eye condition in memory of his grandmother.


He tells People: “When my grandma [Celia Kleinman] died two years ago, I wanted to do something in her memory. She had MD and so this was the inspiration.”

An artist-in-residence at Mascalls Gallery in Kent, Mr Hahn contacted other sufferers and Moorfields Eye Hospital to carry out his research. “The more information people gave me, the more accurate I could be.”

The painting of his grandmother, titled Booba, is at the centre of the exhibition, running until July 17 at the Mascalls Gallery.He admits this portrait was particularly tricky because of the emotional attachment. Mr Hahn has twice been selected for the BP Portrait award at the National Portrait Gallery and received a Royal Academy scholarship to the Prado in Madrid. He is a member of Edgware District Reform Synagogue.

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