Meninas                                                                                                                                                                     (1993-1997, photographs)

Menina means girl. I chose the Portuguese word instead of the English version because of the current association of “girls” with sex-commerce and the adult/ porno culture. In English, the title would give a distorted appeal to the series while in Portuguese the word keeps its reserve and innocence and remains appropriate to refer to those girls between childhood and puberty.

“Meninas” has been developed since the beginning of my practice with photography. I begun in the early 90’s, taking commissioned middle class family portraits in the state of Bahia, in Brazil. I did not know yet that those pictures would become an art series, but since the first assignments I was impressed by the way the girls stood in front of the camera.

Arriving to what was supposed to be a standard family photo-session, I would meet them in adult like customs, wearing lipstick, posing their imitations of photo models. The strong sexuality present in that innocent attitude at such a young age came out instantly to me. The seduction and the pretended confidence demonstrate the little girl who wants to be beautiful but who actually wants to be loved. The ambivalence of puberty exposed in their attitude was confronting me, because I realized those girls were like the girl I used to be.

Finally, it is significant to remark the obsession of beauty as part of the Brazilian culture for the whole 20th century, though during the last decades it had its great boom. The rise of the cosmetic and fashion industry in my country and its associations and consequences – the incredible market of plastic surgeries, photo-modelling as the highest ambition for girls, etc – reinforce the idea of beauty/vanity as a strong value inside the Brazilian society. And children are very much affected by it.