Hélène Gaillet de Neergaard is a self-taught photographer and artist born in France and raised in Larchmont and New York City. Her passion for photography developed early when she used her babysitting money to purchase her first camera at the age of 14.

After successful careers in advertising and public relations, she was able to go freelance and turned to professional photography in her mid-thirties.  In a field where she quickly excelled, it didn't take her long to leap over boundaries in her ability to explore beyond the limits of cameras and films.

''Transcending unpredictable barriers, her work is as diverse and multileveled as the artist herself.  From tranquil and free-form to photo sculpture to brilliantly outrageous eroticism and moveable poster forms, the artist leaves an impression of great provocative desire and phantasm." (Le Figaro, Paris)

"To define HG's photos is to focus on audacity and perspicacity.  A liberated and free-spirited documentarian, she is at ease beyond frontiers of art and expression." (L'Express, Paris)

"Her universe is unexpected, extravagant and sophisticated.  Her portraits of notorious celebrities are incisive and penetrating and often seem to participate as an accomplice with an insistent look of complicity." (Le Quotidien, Paris)

HG doesn't simply take photographs; she creates and produces images which become reflections of her own desires and fantasies.  The conceptual and spectacular are mixed in black and white and color to change our vision of the ordinary into a field of the unexpected.
We are faced with unknown mediums, unprecedented and curious couplings and evasive
erotic dreams already half forgotten.

"In the excitement of a color slide show we are surprised keyhole watchers of improvised pranks, voyeurs-participants of strange erotic happenings." (Salon des Refusés, New York)

Prior to the 1980s, very few galleries showed photography exclusively, and options were limited for exhibiting this work; yet Hélène was exhibited as follows:

Galleries

• 1975 - Salon des Refusés, NY, One Woman Show

• 1975 - La Photo Galerie, Paris, One Woman Show

• 1975 & 1976 - Sequential Gallery, NY, Two Group Shows

• 1976 - Women by Women, Midtown Y Photography Gallery, Group Show

Television

• 1974 - The All American Series, etc., Hélène wrote and directed a weekly one-hour show on Manhattan Cable

Posters

In archives of the International Center of Photography (ICP),   the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) New York.  
and the Centre Pompidou, Paris

Publications

Business Week, Car & Driver, Metropolis, New Times, New York, New York Times, Oui, Penthouse, People, Ski, TIME, The Village Voice, books, record album covers and more ...

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Her photographic archives have been acquired by the HILLWOOD ART MUSEUM on the C. W.  POST CAMPUS
of LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY which exhibited a retrospective of her work September to December 2008.  
She is also painting in watercolors and acrylics, creates conceptual art pieces and writes books on various subjects.  
Currently she lives in New York City and Naples, Florida.

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You can read about some of Hélène's past years in:

A Woman Named Jackie: An Intimate Biography of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedv Onassis, by C. David Heymann. Lyle Stuart Books. Published by Carol Communications, 1989. ISBN: 0-8184-0472-8. Chapter 26: p. 479; Ch, 27: pp. 487-488; Ch. 29: pp. 547-548.

Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis. Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys, by Peter Evans. Regan Books, 2004. ISBN: 0-06-058053-4. Chapter 29: "A good place for confessions", pp. 262-283.

The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co., by William D. Cohan. Doubleday, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-385-51451-4. Chapter 6: "The Savior of New York (Félix G. Rohatyn), pp. 157-165. Ex-Lazard Banker Recalls Sex, Greed, Sun King, Murder (Update1)

A Fortunate Life, by Robert Vaughn. St. Martin's Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-312-37112-8. Chapter 12: Still Unsolved? pp. 261-265

Hélène's current books in print, The BOAT BOOK: A Guide and Reference Book for ALL Boaters and Nautical Terms & Abbreviations, are available at Amazon.com.  In 2003, she published a French song book, CHANTONS ENSEMBLE, which will soon be published in French and English with music scores.

Hélène's interests are widely varied and always incorporate some kind of art form, whether it be photography, painting, writing, keeping a journal, cooking or volunteering for charities. Her motto is, "Our fantasies are the only reality!"

Professional activities as photographer 1970 to 1976 (partial list)

• Official Photographer for Alvin Ailey Dance Company

• Official Photographer National Car Racing Rally Association

• Official Photographer for Diana Vreeland's costume exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Official Photographer for New York Public Library

• Personal Photographer for Governor Hugh Carey

• Represented by GAMMA-LIAISON International Photo Agency, now Getty Images

• Stringer Photographer for The New York Times and People magazine

• Photographer for Canon cameras for one year.  Each year, Canon picked 12 top photographers - 2 women and 10 men - and each month would feature that photographer's work in their advertising campaign.  Helene's work was featured in April 1974.

Google Hélène Gaillet for more details, and she appreciates feedback by e-mail: helenegaillet@gmail.com