Helena Almeida, Study for Inner Improvement, 1977 A beautiful woman stares into the camera, a jagged splash of blue paint obliterating half her face. At first this act seems disfiguring, aggressive – is the artist blocking herself out of the picture in an act of self-loathing? In fact exploration of the full series of images, entitled Study for Inner Improvement, tells a totally different story.
Rather than a piece of self-obliteration, Helena Almeida’s photogr...