Hannah Collins was born in London in 1956 and graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1979. In 1993 she was a Turner Prize nominee for her representation at the Third International Istanbul Biennial, where she exhibited her series Signs of Life.

Hannah Collins\'s photographs show her long standing interest in the places occupied by people who live on the margins or borders of society. She has described her work as \'both sculptural and pictorial\'; she often scales it to suit the environment, so her photographic images vary in size from one to thirty metres. They are shown mounted onto different supports, including linen or cotton draped or hung like banners, or free-standing metal panels.