Hellen van MEENE

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Born in Alkmaar, 1972.
Lives and works in Heiloo.

Nearly all Van Meene's subjects are pubescent girls in whom the innocence of childhood prevails. Sometimes there is a touch of sensual femininity in their pose or gaze. Above all, the photographs reveal the sit¬ters' insecurity about their own identity. Their air of vulnerability is intensified by the strange dresses and shifts they have been given to wear. They are at once gauche and sensual, vulnerable and proud, and all radiate a sense of loneliness and longing.
For her early work Van Meene picked mod¬els in her immediate surroundings.
In 2000 she traveled to Japan, spending time in Tokyo, Atami, Osaka and Kyoto, where she approached girls in public places and then photographed them in their homes. Since then Van Meene has travelled each year.
Recent series have been shot in Riga (Latvia, 2004), St. Petersburg (Russia, 2004), and London (UK, 2005). Many of these portraits have been made not after making appointments but directly on the spot where she met her models. Another new development in her work is the inclusion of boys as models and experiments with group portraits.

 

About works / performance

"TOKYO GIRLS - A Sense of You, Created by Me" (TWS shibuya, 2006)