The prints of French-Italian photographer Hélène Mogensen de Monléon are cleverly balanced to be thought-provoking without being provocative. Through her interpretation of a scene, one discovers narratives of the humanity of the routine, the glory of the everyday. “My approach to photography is both emotional and aesthetic,” she explains. “On the aesthetic level I look for the ‘unexpected elegance,’ the right composition to reveal the hidden beauty.” On an emotional level, she appeals to a wide audience through the sense she provides of a common journey, speaking to ideas and experiences already in her viewers’ hearts and minds, which her art brings out and makes visible.
Hélène Mogensen de Monléon is influenced by a multicultural European background, having lived in places as diverse as the Mediterranean and Scandinavia. She attended art schools in Rome and Lyon, where she initially studied painting, and also holds a Masters degree in Law and Management, which has led to a career in that field both in France and Denmark, where she now lives.