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| © Hellen Van Meene |
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Portraiture might be the most challenging photographic endeavor. It is a complex interaction between the photographer's intent, the subject's preconceptions and ideas, and the viewer's background. So how do photographers manage to make great portraits?
I have long been a fan of Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene. Her portraits of adolescents possess an extremely quiet and forceful beauty. I've often wondered how she manages to create work that is so beautiful, while always avoiding the trap of producing mere clichés. Deciding to approach Hellen to talk to her about her images, I was particularly happy to not only get a glimpse of her ideas about her work, but to also to see some of her very new photos that have not yet been seen publicly.
Joerg Colberg: A portrait comes into being via the interaction between the photographer and the subject. During a discussion over dinner the other night, a photographer friend told my wife that it's always the photographer who makes things happen, whereas my wife said that in the end, it all depended on what the subject was willing to give and ultimately on the subject's underlying personality. I am wondering, from your experience of having done many portraits, who mostly determines the outcome of such a session? To what extent do you guide your subjects? And if you guide them do you guide them towards something specific that you'd like to see or towards something that you think might be there?
Hellen van Meene: I guide my subjects a lot. I always ask models that have no experience as models. They're just girls and boys from the street. Because of that I always guide them, because I think a good photographer should know what they want from a subject. Once you have a model posing in front of you it is good to help them, by telling them in what direction to look or what pose to choose. That way you can help them to have confidence and also to feel relaxed with you.
If I was an insecure photographer, who didn't know what to do at the moment when the photos are being taken, or if I was still thinking of some idea, it would be important not to show that. It's important that the model feels that they can trust me because they have to feel comfortable with me. They have to trust me that I am able to make a good photo of them.
Sometimes, the model can do something that I haven't thought of before, and then of course I react. Suppose the model is changing her arms or legs in a composition so that I think "Wow! That is very interesting. Please hold that!" And then I take another photo. So it is always the interaction between the model and me. But it's most important that I am always in control or, at least, I always believe that I am.
JC: You work a lot with adolescents. What is your motivation for this? Is taking portraits of adolescents different from taking portraits of adults?
HVM: When you work with young people, you notice they're open and so flexible. It's so different from working with adults or with elderly people. A young person is so open and so fresh, you can guide them much more than adults.
If you're taking portraits of someone in their forties, you find they really know what they want, so it's more difficult to pry them open, to get into their soul, to really get a feel of the person. It's more difficult because they already know what they want from life, they already have experienced things, either positive or negative; and that results in a different outcome.
I still feel more related to younger people, even though I am 35 years old now. I guess you could say I'm approaching my forties, but I still feel closer to young people. I like them, I like how for them everything is still open: whatever they can become in life. It's very interesting; it always inspires me so much. They are the generation that I feel responsible for, to guide them and to take good photographs, so that they will not be insecure about themselves. I can help them being proud of the photo we have taken together -- and that means that when they are older, they will be able to say "Wow! Look how I was when I was so young!"
Taking photos of young people gives me more space for my photographs. You cannot dress a forty-year-old in different kind of clothes, because then it looks like you're setting something up; and it looks fake. If you put a younger woman into different kinds of clothes -- which is sometimes very important in my photos, not like in fashion photography, but it's a detail that makes the photos -- that gives the photos a much more interesting space, and it add more details. But if you would put a fifty-year old into a simple top or negligé then you get a different atmosphere than when you do it with young people. In that case, the clothes are important, but it looks like they are less significant. With a fifty-year old in a top you can easily see that the skin is older and that everything has changed, and that's not what I'm looking for.
I don't know if I'm explaining this well, but I think that young people are so inspiring, and I love to be inspired by them. They're so open and new and fresh, they have to explore everything, and I love to guide that. Maybe when I'm much older, say in my sixties, I will think about forty-year-old models, but not right now.
I also work only with daylight, because I think it is most important to give my model all the attention they need. When I work outside in natural light I can interact straight away when I see that the light is much better on the tree next to me. So I can ask the model to step aside. In a studio I would feel too limited. There, the light has already been set up, and if you would want to change it you are less focused on the model and more on the light equipment in the studio. I like to be more focused on the model, and daylight is so beautiful!
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