helenas

helenas is a visual and autobiographical essay that investigates how beauty standards shape female identity from childhood.

Drawing from family memories, the work reflects on the symbolic privilege attributed to blonde hair — historically associated with purity, light, and perfection — and on how this Eurocentric ideal structures affections, hierarchies, and perceptions of value within the Brazilian context.

Inspired by the name Helena, from the Greek helene (“the bright one,” “the beautiful one”), the project evokes mythological and media figures that have consolidated the image of the blonde woman as both protagonist and object of desire. In contrast, I revisit my own experience of growing up alongside a blonde sister, recognizing how these subtle distinctions shaped my self-image and sense of belonging.

Combining authorial photographs with personal and public archives, I construct narratives that move between the intimate and the collective, transforming memories into a critical gesture. helenas seeks to reframe these experiences and question the mechanisms that naturalize exclusionary standards, revealing how beauty can operate as a device of power, affection, and exclusion.