Hellen van Meene


Paola Noé: In your work you depict teenagers and young girls who seem to “grow up” in front of the camera. What impelled you to focus your energies on portraying adolescence?

Hellen van Meene: Adolescence is a critical time for everyone. It’s a necessary, and sometimes difficult, stage we must pass through to become women. As we grow up, that confusing, pubescent stage is left behind, but it remains ingrained in our memory. The “best” kind of adult is one who is able to keep some bond with childhood and this bridge is adolescence.

Paola Noé: What do you seek to communicate by choosing a particular type of adolescent girl?

Hellen van Meene: My photographs don’t portray sick, poor, or lonely girls. They are girls in the process of growing up, with all the beauty of their adolescent imperfection and naiveté...


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




Paola Noé