For the past seven years, Hellen van Meene has been producing intimate portraits of adolescents. Though the introspective gaze of her models suggest that these are spontaneous, private moments in the lives of her subjects, the carefully considered natural light, lush textures, and striking compositions betray van Meene's hand in choreographing each image down to the finest detail. Throughout, the picturesque qualities are undercut by a disquieting tension: the models' clothes are ill-fitting or inside-out; one girl is asked to lie in a cold bath, fully clothed; another models a fresh bruise. This intimate collaboration between the photographer and her models simultaneously exposes the uncertain nature of adolescent identities and the complicated act of capturing them on film.

In the quest for beauty there has only ever been one authority - Vogue. The magazine's pursuit of perfection has chronicled the changing face of beauty at its seductive best; its photographs and illustrations represent the power of the transformation of self, the creative statement made with a brush of make-up, the seduction implied in a gloss of lipstick. Having created a world where the female form rules supreme, Vogue is the fairy godmother to beauty's fable and Vogue Beauty celebrates the fashion and form that has shaped our viewpoint: clothed or naked; dramatically enhanced or naturally simplistic; the face, the mask, the luxury, the allure of the aesthetic. Capturing the scent of glamour alongside the romance of woman, Vogue Beauty is as classic as a stick of red lipstick.

This book gives finely-detailed period photographs of the locality from the world-famous Frith archive. With extended captions to accompany the pictures, it contains a full introduction.