Natalie Tkachuk
For us, Natalie’s work is a much needed reminder to try and find beauty in the everyday. Her photography does exactly that – she finds treasure by creating new objects out of the old, twisting the reality and looking at objects through alternative angles.
Her series ‘Traces’ is a collection of photographs of old letters and books, collected from house clearances where they had been cast out and devalued. Under Natalie’s spell, these objects take on new life, made public for all to see.
Traces 7 (2020)
Digital C-print, 76 x 101.6 cm (30 x 40 in) Edition of 10
Traces 7 (2020), digital C-print, 42 x 59.4 cm (16 1/2 x 23 1/2 in) Edition of 50
Traces 9 (2020)
Digital C-print, 76 x 101.6 cm (30 x 40 in) Edition of 10
Traces 9 (2020), digital C-print, 42 x 59.4 cm (16 1/2 x 23 1/2 in) Edition of 50
3 Minutes with Natalie…
Where do you draw inspiration from? People, places or things?
I draw inspiration from objects, I love to scour a bric-a-brack or a car boot. Finding items that were once loved and treasured by another person but have become lost and forgotten. I always find it so interesting to imaging their histories and how they ended up where they did. Every object tells a story and has a beauty to it.
Which artists inspires you most?
Karl Blossfeldt and his incredibly beautiful nature studies of plants, Christian Boltanski for his study of memory, mortality and the passing of time & Joan Fontcuberta for his humorous fictional documentary photography encouraging the viewer to question what it is that they see.
Favourite quote?
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
— Aaron Siskind