BIOGRAPHY

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Helen Margaret Giovanello, born in London, grew up in Turin, Italy.

She enrolled at the University of Philosophy and Human Sciences in Turin, but captivated by art and the diversity of expressions, she moved to Paris and then flew to New York. In 1996, she graduated from the ICP International Center of Photography.

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As photojournalist, Helen chooses to document the human condition, in an intimate and personal way. Among her clients are: The NY Times, Le Monde, Newsweek, Courrier International, L'Espresso...

“Survivors, lives on a street line”, a three-year testimony of an immersion in the life of a homeless couple in Spanish Harlem NY, was selected in 1999 for the Photography Biennale in Turin Italy.

Back from Africa, Helen was divided between New York and San Francisco where her fiancée, Rama, died of cancer in October 2001.

From this experience come “I love you", artist's book and exhibition sponsored by the Italian Consulate, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' of NY University and curated, Mr. Denis Curti.

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Helen spent 2003 in India where she shared the life of prostitutes in Kamathipura the red-light district of Mumbai. This work will be presented among others at the Museum of Photography in Brescia, Italy.

It was in New York that Helen took her first Iyengar Yoga and meditation classes. 

In Mumbai, meetings “satsangs” with spiritual master, Ramesh Balsekar, introduced her to the thought of the Advaïta philosophy. This immersion in the heart of the human spirit will never leave her.

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In 2004, in response to the war in Iraq, Helen began the project “When war comes home” where she photographed the last moments before the soldiers left for the front and mirrored with the bereaved families.

In 2005, thanks to a grant from The Planethood Foundation, Helen moved to Gulu in Northern Uganda and documented the social repercussions of one of Africa's longest wars.

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Having moved back to Paris, she became an Iyengar Yoga teacher, and from 2015 started producing new photographic series.

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