Helen is a prolific writer on photography and visual culture for a diverse range of publications. Her writing is deeply rooted in her commitment to amplifying the voices of underrepresented visual artists, focusing on art that challenges dominant narratives and expands artistic discourse. She also frequently explores how historical ways of seeing shape individual and collective creative expression. Selected publications below span her international practice.
Silver Eye Center for Photography
Helen produces new writing on photography for every exhibition at Silver Eye. This includes Gallery Guides, which provide insight into exhibiting artists’ practices, and Education Guides, which prompt viewers to consider new perspectives and connect with works on view. Together, these guides encourage visitors to explore ways to make meaning and share ideas about visual art.
Explore Silver Eye’s archive of Gallery + Education Guides at silvereye.org
Image credit: Photograph by Tara Geyer | Courtesy Silver Eye Center for Photography
Silver Eye Benefit Auction 2024 Catalog
Published to accompany Silver Eye’s Benefit Auction 2024, this publication surveys all sixty-five auction lots and the artists that created them. This limited edition full-color publication reflects the breadth and depth of photographic possibilities explored throughout Silver Eye’s exhibitions and programs, and serves as an enduring statement on Silver Eye’s extended community.
Purchase the catalog at silvereye.org or download a pdf version
MFA in Photography, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2024 Publication
Every year, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago invites a curator/writer of photography to collaborate with the cohort of MFA Photography students to develop a publication of current student work. Helen was honored to be the 2024 visiting curator and writer, working with the students alongside project coordinator Jan Tichy and designer Lucas Reif to curate the 2024 publication. Her introductory essay ‘To Live in This World’ situated the students’ work within new directions in contemporary photography while considering the organic framework of values expressed through their work.
Learn more about the artists by exploring their 2024 Graduate Exhibitions online.
Holding Still: Grounding the personal and political in The Front Yard by Bryan Martello
Bryan Martello exhibited The Front Yard at Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA, in the Fall/Winter of 2023. In response to this series, my essay considers the complicated boundaries between public and private, personal and political, that coexist in these spaces. I reflect on Martello’s questioning of visual and textual languages, especially concerning black-and-white photography. My essay considers how the front yard can sustain self-identity, memory, and values that ground our lives.
Image credit: Bryan Martello, Owl, Courtesy of the artist
Designed by Studio Elana Schlenker and made possible through generous funding from The Leonian Foundation and Henry Simonds, this new publication celebrates the third edition of Silver Eye Center for Photography’s biennial survey.
The catalog features an in-depth look at Radial Survey Vol.3 artists Akea Brionne, Larry W. Cook, Alanna Fields, Marissa Long, Eduardo L. Rivera, Shane Rocheleau, and Lisa Toboz, as well as original essays by Anna Mirzayan, Sean Beauford, Silver Eye Executive Director Leo Hsu, and Deputy Director of Programs Helen Trompeteler.
‘Learning and Unlearning to See’ in Cutting Holes for Eyes: Nicole Czapinski and Centa Schumacher
Nicole Czapinski and Centa Schumacher are artists highly influenced by material exploration. Their exhibition Cutting Holes for Eyes at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh features a new body of work made possible by the trust built between them through their collaborative process. This short essay is featured in the accompanying limited-edition publication designed by Makenzie O’Connor and produced by Point Line Projects.
Silver Eye Benefit Auction 2022 Catalog
Published to accompany Silver Eye’s Benefit Auction 2022, this unique publication surveys all 100 auction lots and the artists who created them. This limited-edition full-color publication reflects the breadth and depth of Silver Eye’s programs and serves as an enduring statement on Silver Eye’s extended community.
Purchase the catalog at silvereye.org or download a pdf version
Challenging the Canon: Olga Yatskevich on Photobook History
Officially released on 1 November 2021, What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women 1843–1999 was recently shortlisted for the Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation Catalogue of the Year Award 2021. Helen recently spoke with Olga Yatskevich about 10×10 Photobooks’ ongoing exploration of photobook history and the underrepresentation of women in this field.
Read their conversation on the Pittsburgh Photo Fair website.
Courtesy 10 x 10 Photobooks
Reimagining Aperture: In conversation with Sarah Meister
Following an exceptional career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Sarah Meister joined Aperture as Executive Director in May 2021. Helen recently spoke with Sarah about Aperture’s history, her vision for its future, and photography’s central role in our contemporary experience.
Read their conversation on the Pittsburgh Photo Fair website.
Final edition of Aperture issue 1, 1952, featuring an untitled photograph by Dorothea Lange. Courtesy The Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum. Bequest of Minor White. Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University
Sotheby’s Photographs at 50: Brandei Estes on Collecting
This year, Sotheby’s celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first photographs auction, which took place in London in 1971. Coinciding with this occasion, Helen spoke with Brandei about the evolution of the art photography market. They discussed what drives her passion for photography and her advice for new collectors.
Read their conversation on the Pittsburgh Photo Fair website.
Horst P. Horst, ‘Mainbocher Corset’ Paris, 1939 © Estate of Horst P. Horst / Courtesy Sotheby’s. Lot 32 from 50 Masterworks to Celebrate 50 Years of Sotheby’s Photographs, 22 April 2021.
Photography in Four Dimensions: Paul Messier on Conservation
An interview with Paul Messier about the extensive collection of historic photographic papers he assembled, now held at Yale. Helen and Paul discussed recent projects from his expansive career in conservation and current challenges in the field.
Read their conversation on the Pittsburgh Photo Fair website.
Packages of paper from the Messier Reference Collection of Photographic Paper. Image credit: Paul Messier
Queen Victoria and the photographic expression of widowhood
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2022 (33)
This essay reveals the photograph of the mourning widow as more than just an illustration of Victoria and her grief; rather, it shows how the medium of photography shapes that grief and makes it useful for monarchy and empire.
Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice by Louis Joseph Ghemar, 1862 (detail) © Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
Archaeology and Photography: A Historical Overview
Publication forthcoming
From September 2020 to January 2021, Helen worked as an advisor to the British Museum. She researched historical photographs related to Tello (ancient Girsu) in southern Iraq. Her commissioned writing for the British Museum considered the foundational links between photography and archaeology in the mid-19th—20th centuries.
Interior of the British Museum by Roger Fenton, 1854-1858 © Victoria & Albert Museum
Photography and the Family Album
Living Memory: Life Stories and Photographs from the Black Country (2020)
A commissioned essay on the traditions of the family album for the book The Living Memory Project, which celebrates photographic collections and life stories from across the Black Country, England.
Photograph © Annie Spratt
‘Prince Albert, Photography and Scotland’ in Studies in Photography
Scottish Society for the History of Photography, Winter 2020
The bi-annual journal ‘Studies in Photography’ aims to be a catalyst for discourse on Scottish photography.
Scottish Society for the History of Photography, Winter 2020 Issue
‘Photography and Politics in The Woman’s Dreadnought’ in East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth
Four Corners (2018)
This essay accompanied East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth at Four Corners, London, in 2018, the first-ever exhibition of Norah Smyth’s photographs.
An ELFS stall on Roman Road selling The Woman’s Dreadnought © Estate of Norah Smyth
‘Portraiture as Question: Reflections on ‘You Get Me?’ (2017)
A commissioned essay on the work of photographer Mahtab Hussain.
Red hijab, red dress and bling © Mahtab Hussain
Interview: Marilyn Stafford (2017)
This interview accompanied the exhibition Stories in Pictures 1950-1960 at Art Bermondsey Project Space.
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Boulogne-Billancourt © Marilyn Stafford
Book review: When War Is Over by Daniel Alexander & Andrew Haslam (2016)
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Delhi War Cemetery, India: 1022 Commonwealth Casualties Commemorated. © Daniel Alexander
Cinema Portraits: Transforming Traditions in Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty
Skira Editions (2016)
A commissioned essay on the traditions of cinema portraiture for the publication that accompanied the exhibition ‘Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits’ at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.
Genevieve Nnaji © Iké Udé
Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon
National Portrait Gallery, London (2015)
This publication accompanied a record-breaking exhibition that Helen co-curated for the National Portrait Gallery in 2015. This first major UK exhibition to examine the photographic iconography of Audrey Hepburn was supported by the Audrey Hepburn Estate.
The book has been published in multiple languages, including German and Japanese.
Front cover of Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon (2015)
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Lucian Freud by John Deakin, 1961 © The John Deakin Archive
Interview: Todd Hido
This interview accompanied the publication of Excerpts from Silver Meadows (Nazraeli Press, 2013)
Of the Afternoon (Issue 5, 2014)
Photographs © Todd Hido
Interview: Glen Erler
This interview accompanied the publication of Family Tree (Kehrer Verlag, 2013)
Of the Afternoon (Issue 4, 2014)
Photograph © Glen Erler
Man Ray Portraits
National Portrait Gallery, London (2013)
Author of a detailed illustrated chronology for this book on Man Ray’s life and work, which accompanied the first museum retrospective of Man Ray’s innovative photographic portraits, which Helen served as Associate Curator for the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Front cover of Man Ray Portraits (2013)
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Wenda Parkinson in a coat by Aquascutum, Vogue, November 1947 © Estate of Norman Parkinson
Collections: Lucia Moholy (2012)
A commissioned essay examining the life and work of modernist photographer Lucia Moholy.
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Bauhaus Building, Dessau, by Lucia Moholy, 1926 © Lucia Moholy Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Brian Duffy: The Man Who Shot the Sixties (2011)
A commissioned essay on documentary fashion photographer Brian Duffy for the exhibition catalogue of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.
Fashion for ‘Vogue’, Florence, 1964 © Estate of Brian Duffy