Hellen van Meene

Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene exhibits photographs of girls as they approach adulthood. Her models come from her home town of Alkmaar in Holland and also Japan, where they were found on the street and invited to participate in the photographs: a process which in the commercial world would elicit accusations of exploitation. Here, however, her intent is different, and the images are devoid of eroticism – full of the awkwardness and sense of discomfort of the body in flux. And although you might deduce something of the models’ interior worlds, these young girls appear as nameless formal devices, rendered with icy accuracy in their mundane suburban habitats.