It was in a plain college classroom in Amsterdam, over three years ago, that first saw Hellen van Meene's work: small matte, square color photos of children girls a boy, a slightly older teenager usually expticitly dressed up, introverted eyes turned away, either standing or sitting in front of a solid background. They were not portraits in the true meaning of the word, seeing that the invasiveness of the sets and disguises was so strong But the disguises - often the playful result of feminine and erotically charged clothing and poses - had an unexpected result, strangely enough. These were not cute or heartwarming photographs. Maybe it was because of the seriousness of the teenagers, or because of the feeling that they were treated with respect, yet so obviously manipulated at the same time: the work was beautiful, yet the photographer's eye had a kind of mercilessness.

Hellen van Meene usually takes pictures 'of people she knows, girlfriends or girls from her surroundings, children and young women with the (un)complimentary traits of puberty, with its distinctive mixture of angularity and grace, awkwardness and sensuality, vulnerability and pride loneliness and desire. Not always are her subjects placed against a flat wall frequently they are found in carefully chosen environments, a room, a landscape. Usually she opts for what in 'movies would be called a "medium 'shot", enabling her to actually show ,some of the surroundings while still giving the impression of closeness. Formally, her sets remind us of paintings from vastly different periods with a slight preference for the Renaissance and the late 19th century. Van Meene sometimes takes the portrait as the direct base for her work, but more often we see sets referring to mythological, historical or literary painterly images. These references are never direct quotes nor are they precise in any way. Her method resembles that of Cindy Sherman, whose stills of some twenty years ago suggest motion-picture films without it ever being possible to pin down which ones. Van Meene makes us think vaguely of Botticelli, of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and sometimes even of imagery inspired by the medieval legends of King Arthur. (...)

Van Meene sometimes follows one model longer than the others: in one sequence she has a young woman impersonating a series of characters - or should I say personifying a series of emotions? Here, at first, the theatrical, the stage production effect seems to dominate - the girl acts out the dramatic dreams of some tragic heroine. But even here form and content are perfectly balanced.

In the end, the key literary moments are just as important as the image. Desire is as important as sunlight on an almost transparent complexion, loneliness as important as the difference in materiality between floral fabric, skin and real flowers; tragedy as important as reflection and the play of shadows.

Hripsimé Visser

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