Audrey Hepburn: Becoming a Modern Icon by NPGLondon

Helen Trompeteler discusses Audrey Hepburn’s life in photographs and the development of her era-defining image – tracing her early years as a ballet student and performer in London, through to her international stage and screen career.
Hepburn rose to fame during the 1950s, at a time when roles for women were being redefined in the post-war era. Against the environment of the Hollywood studio ‘system’, Hepburn was pioneering in her use fashion to maintain her individuality, creating an independent style of femininity which both responded to and challenged the gender expectations of her time. By exploring pivotal collaborations with many of the most significant photographers of the twentieth century, Trompeteler considers Hepburn’s carefully crafted image within the context of photographic history.

Helen Trompeteler is Associate Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and co-curator of Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon. Previously Assistant Curator of the Man Ray Portraits exhibition (2013), her past displays include Snowdon: A Life in View (2014), Fred Daniels: Cinema Portraits (2012) and Format Photography Agency (2010).