Photographer #374: Hellen van Meene

Hellen van Meene, 1972, The Netherlands, is a portrait photographer who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Most of her portrait images are of young teenage girls. She is widely known for her exceptional use of light and the sometimes awkward yet fragile poses. She works with girls that have no experience being a model and guides them in how they need to pose. She only uses natural light in order to keep fully concentrated on her models. She has traveled to Japan, England, Latvia and Russia amongst other countries for her portraits. In contrast with her earlier work, where she would ask girls in her surrounding and have time to create a strong image, she asked complete strangers in the streets to be photographed while she was traveling in search of the right teenagers. The portrait sessions were often finished within ten minutes. Hellen has been exhibited extensively throughout the world, been in numerous publications and released several photography books. The following images come from her portfolio.

Website: www.hellenvanmeene.com
(Video starts in Dutch but includes an interview in English towards the end and shows a large collection of her works)