Hellen Rodel: non-binary photographer, visual artist and scenographer.

Credits: Mir Fotografia Hellen Rodel is a non-binary photographer, visual artist and scenographer. Theywere born in La Plata, Argentina in March 26 th of 1999. They startedphotographing at the age of twelve, when they got their first camera. Theyworked in self portraiture for six years, exploring different techniques, and thenthey started shooting other people, which is their main activity today. Their workwas exhibited in Municipalidad de La Plata in the Women’s Parlament of 2017,and published in Revista Palta, Revista Omega and Escrituras Indie. They studyVisual Arts with a major on Scenography in Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Below you can find Hellen's work and their artist statement.

I see my photography as the expression of an amalgam of values from which I distinguish two dimensions: one of them political and the other one artistical. In the political dimension, my purest intention (and in fact, the first of them all) is for my art to be inclusive. I strongly believe that everything we do is political and photography is not the exception. A big part of this discipline nowadays is being crossed by stereotypes and the reproduction of what society taught us. That is why I understand that from my place I have the possibility to create a different content. Personally, I do not believe that you need something special for modelling; I believe that the mental frame that contains certain aesthetic parameters when it is time to decide who you are shooting and who you are not is violent and unacceptable.

Consent at all times, respect to all parts involved and promotion of personal empowerment are mainstays of my work. Regardless of how my art looks at the end of the day, the space and the moment of realization of that art matters a lot, and I can not and do not want it to lack anything of what I just said.

On the artistic part, I connect my art with a sense of belonging and spiritual connection, at the same time that I find in it a transfiguration of a bunch of inner processes. My respect towards photography comes from a self conception of Higher Power that manifests in my life every time I work, to take me to a personal growth and a better relationship with the world around me. A lot of visual aspects of my photography, like the choice of saturating the colors or generating an oneiric or surreal image, are related to a sense of freedom and personal empowerment, which I am gaining thanks to my recovery from drug addiction. In that sense, my work is a mirror of my new way of life. 

My art is a space where I can practice all the values that I consider important and, at the same time, make a contact with my spirituality and my inner being. Today, I believe that I have the chance to choose, and that's why I choose to give a message of personal power. To see more of Hellen's work check out this and this.