Helena Almeida
Body and work
The Portuguese photographer and artist, who died two years ago, was one of the most elegant, subtle, transgressive and direct symbols of feminism and art in the second half of the 20th century.
The daughter of a sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida, from the beginning of her career Helena decided to dismantle certain artistic myths, like that of linguistic purity, break the established artistic boundaries and amalgamate black-and-white photography and paintings, as well as employing other styles.
In the late 1950s, in his series Antropometries, the French artist Yves Klein used the naked body of the woman as a mere object, like a figure subordinate to man. Helena Almeida decided to speak out and respond through her pieces, with a clear message: “I decide about my body”. Almeida literally took power over her own body in her photographs, in which her husband, Artur Rosa, did the job of clicking the shutter; she took care of everything else.
Helena Almeida did not need to shout to be heard. Her works [...]
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