A Photographic Life - 103: Plus Hellen Van Meene

In episode 103 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on subscription models, the expectation of photography by non-photographers, and the importance of light. Plus this week photographer Hellen van Meene takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which she answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ Hellen van Meene was born in the Netherlands in 1972. Her mother gave her a camera at age 15 and she began taking photographs at age 16 of her friends, which developed into her continuing focus on adolescent girls in old houses in her hometown of Alkmaar as part of her professional practice. Van Meene studied Fine Art at Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and spent a brief period in 1995 at the Edinburgh College of Art. Five years out of art school, she was shortlisted for the Citibank Photography Prize (2001) and signed with New York's Matthew Marks gallery. As her work gained recognition, she expanded her subject matter and spent time working in England, Russia, Latvia, the United States and Japan. Van Meene’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, and The Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is held in the collections of major museums worldwide including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Art Institute of Chicago, MoCA Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Five monographs of her work have been published; Hellen van Meene: The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (2015); Hellen van Meene: Japan Series (2002); Hellen van Meene: Portraits (2004); Hellen van Meene: New Work (2006); and Hellen van Meene: tout va disparaître (2009). She lives and works in Heiloo in the Netherlands and is represented by galleries in London, New York and Tokyo. http://hellenvanmeene.com You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-lifeand Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. The documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020