Hellen van Meene: Portraits
- Hardcover: 96 pages
- Text by Kate Bush
- Publisher: Aperture; (October 30, 2004)
- ISBN: 1931788456
It's one of The Village Voice's Top 25 Photo Books of 2004:
Hellen Van Meene: Portraits (ISBN 1931788456).
It features 55 photos and an essay by Kate Bush.
Published by Aperture,
who are also offering an edition
of 75 C-prints of the cover photo for $750. (Hurry, because they are down to the last 10 prints!)
You can get the book at many stores all over the world/web, including amazon.com. Bookstore photo-eye offers a review and a look inside the book.
People in the Benelux can order the book for € 33.10 including shipping at proxis.be.
For the past seven years, Hellen van Meene has been producing intimate portraits of adolescents. Though the introspective gaze of her models suggest that these are spontaneous, private moments in the lives of her subjects, the carefully considered natural light, lush textures, and striking compositions betray van Meene's hand in choreographing each image down to the finest detail. Throughout, the picturesque qualities are undercut by a disquieting tension: the models' clothes are ill-fitting or inside-out; one girl is asked to lie in a cold bath, fully clothed; another models a fresh bruise. This intimate collaboration between the photographer and her models simultaneously exposes the uncertain nature of adolescent identities and the complicated act of capturing them on film.
"Hellen Van Meene: Portraits" (Aperture) on amazon.com
The German edition (ISBN 3829601581)
has a different cover and is published by the German publisher "for fine art and photography books"
Schirmer/Mosel.
"Hellen Van Meene: Portraits" (Schirmer/Mosel) on amazon.de
The Fall 2004 edition of Aperture magazine also featured Hellen van Meene.
It's in the US Library of Congress.
Reviews
Two outstanding new art titles are recommended picks for specialty art libraries focusing on talented modern photographers. Jock Sturges' Jock Sturges: Notes (1931-788472, $39.95) surveys the styles and works of a photographer who has produced and celebrated the human form for the past decade. [...] Hellen Van Meene: Portraits (1931788-456, $35.00) presents the Dutch photographer's striking focus on portraits of adolescents. Over fifty four-color photos, many [never, ed.] before published, accompany an essay by art historian/curator Kate Bush, presenting a gorgeous, multi-cultural series of images which are strikingly posed and unforgettable.From: www.midwestbookreview.com thanks to www.findarticles.com.
"Natural light, lush textures, and carefully considered compositions provide the foundation for Van Meene's intimate portraits of young girls who act in her staged photographs. Van Meene's subjects, mostly girls, are beautifully corpulent; their changing bodies and pubescent complexions-with blemishes and bruises-provide a visceral drama in themselves. And Van Meene's delightfully fetishistic eye for clothing-often perfectly ill fitting on the model-adds a subtle tension to the scene. She often portrays her subjects entwined and encumbered with the surrounding elements: a young girl lies still between the couch cushions; another's hair is weaved through a fence and another appears with her tracksuit wound tightly around her chest and a tree behind her. All maintain a similar introspective gaze as if they are equally entwined in their own private lives. Throughout, Van Meene masterfully creates a resounding dissonance between the staged nature of the portraits and the realism with which her subjects are depicted."From: www.photoeye.com.
"Prachtige, subtiele, gevoelige foto's van de Nederlandse fotografe Hellen van Meene in een mooi vormgegeven boekje."From: www.scheltema.nl.
"[...] exquisitely lighted views of unidentified teens and kids, most far from eclat standards of beauty, each posed and clothed as if stilled to a lucid moment of I-am. The tenderness, at times surreal, is never mawkish."From: 'Heavy duty' by David Elliott in The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2004-11-28.
"Man denkt an die einsamen Mädchen Edvard Munchs. Deren Einsamkeit nicht als persönliche, sondern als philosophische darzustellen, das ist die Kunst."From: 'Das Fotobuch: Hellen van Meenes Jugend-"Portraits"' by Ulf Erdmann Ziegler in Frankfurter Rundschau, 2005-01-05. In German, or try Google's translation to English.
"Other books I've been meaning to mention that I've also enjoyed, in addition to the ones I mentioned in my post about 2004 photobooks: Helen Van Meene's Portraits [...] My only mild complaint about Van Meene's wonderful book of portraits is that I wish it had been bigger, given the larger and more lavish photographs published in Aperture just months before...but the compact book is well priced as a result and one of the better values for new photography books out there."From: Coincidences, 2005-01-26.
"24. Hellen van Meene: Portraits (Aperture)"From: The Top 25 Photo Books of 2004 by Vince Aletti in The Village Voice, 2005-01-24.