Natasha M. Kaser

2010-06-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

When I was seven, my family moved to a suburb outside of Paris. We lived there for ten months, until my fathers job moved us back to England.
I loved living there so much, that I have had a disillusioned sense of French pride ever since. Of all the places I have lived, I think it is still my favourite - I remember looking out of the car window in wonderment as my father drove us through Paris one night. All the lights, architecture, people and even the amount of cars on the road amazed me, especially since I was used to far more quaint qualities: the village we lived in in England had one major street named "the street"!
I like to look at the photos from that year we spent dans La Celle-Saint-Cloud in our idyllic house (my bedroom had a balcony that over looked our street! Too cute to believe, right?!), here are some of them.

Even though schools in France don't have school uniforms, I liked to wear my english school dress from time to time.

In Paris.

Ah yes, our house.

Oh wait, this was our house.

My beautiful mother, with Lilli and Michaela.

My father and I in Versailles, can you tell it was the '90's?

My sisters and I (also in the gardens of Versailles!)

My brother and sister in our sitting room.

And lastly, this image is not from France (can you tell by the five alive?) - I just find it to be an entertaining photo of my sister Michaela, bless!

2010-06-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

Another absence!
Sorry my updates are rather infrequent, I blame it on the lack of technology in my possession! My trusty laptop (that has made it over 6 years) is in it's last days, and has trouble performing the smallest of tasks (it has now become a glorified mp3 player). So the photos that I DO take (which are admittedly few) on my digital camera are left there. This, coupled with the fact that I am not taking as many photographs as I should, leaves me having little to say - and show!
I haven't come up with a remedy, but I am simply going to start trying to take the extra steps to get images online! And perhaps I will be more sharing with opinions and stories as well!

Any way -

This happened the other day, and it warmed my heart.

2009-10-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it took me a while to post these, but here are some of my favourites from the shoot with Mjolk Homme that I did some time ago! There are plenty more where those came from, but I am still sorting through them deciding which I like the most.. I'm such a fan of the clothes though, if only I could sway my man to dress as nicely as the gentlemen in the photos!
Anyway, I think they might be using the photo's for press soon, so hopefully you will see more images from the shoot around and about!

2009-10-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

Finally, the weather I enjoy most! It is my time of the year!

2009-08-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

Saw Inglourious Basterds on Tuesday (because my friend Val is pretty sure that Daniel Bruhl is her boyfriend), and OMFG:

Michael Fassbender was the best part of that whole movie!!!
I didn't even know he was in it until the opening credits, and then when he came on screen, SWOON.
Like Trevor Howard and George Sanders combined!
And obviously Christoph Waltz was amazing in the film as well.
I really loved the movie (which was surprising since I wasn't very excited to see it beforehand), and even though Tarantino's love of gore and film can get annoying (pick a genre and stick to it!!), I enjoyed all of it!
recommend!!

2009-08-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Image nicked from Wikipedia

I watched Gaslight tonight for the first time, and now I am spooked.
It was so eerie and suspenseful, that the level of discomfort I had while watching the movie (despite Joseph Cotton), has lingered on, and is now preventing me from sleeping.
However, it is a beautifully made film, and I really enjoyed it.

I bring all this up because this has been happening to me a lot lately. I'll indulge in reading wikipedia articles - that I know will both fascinate me and scare me - late at night, and then spend the next few hours feeling queasy, and completely unable to sleep!
Some of my favourites are airplane crashes, miscarriages of justice and dangerous sea animals.
The first image is from the red barn murder, and after seeing it last night, it was burned into my memory. Maybe without the connotation the images isn't as powerful, but still eerie nonetheless!
Well, I need to sleep!

2009-08-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

A little while back I had appendicitis, and had to go to the emergancy room and all that jazz.
Tons of fun obviously, especially since until a day before that I thought I had health insurance, but it turns out it was just a giant scam (Do Not Trust Directmed). So then on top of knowing that I wasn't going to have any help from insurance to pay for it all, they told me I couldn't work for a month after the surgery!
So that trip Jim and I had been planning to England flew out the window, and we have just been really skint for a while.
Oh well! It is finally coming to an end, since I have been bargaining and arguing with the hospital and various debt collectors for a while now. But unfortunately, I will be broke for the next few years now! So I am not sure if I will be able to do photography for my self without some very crafty saving techniques!

Natali & Val visiting me in the hospital.

Natali

Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans

And although these were my favourite books as a child, Madeline's appendicitis was nothing like mine!
No ice cream!

2009-08-20T18:17:00.001-07:00

I havn't updated in a long time, sorry about that!

About a week ago, I did another shoot with Mjolk, and it was a blast!
I can't say enough about how much I enjoy working with them!
I won't post them yet, but for now here are some of the shots I took before the shoot... I LOVE CATS!

2009-08-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Photograph by Michelle Leedy.

A couple of weeks ago I got married! It was obviously a court house affair, the only people present were my husband Jim, my sister Lilli, and my best friend/witness/photographer Mitch!
The night before my other best friend Natali, Mitch, Lilli and I sang karaoke as a last minute bachelorette party!
After we got married, we all went to Mitch's backgarden in Brooklyn and drank champagne!

Well, it was a lovely day!

2009-05-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Also!!
My dear friend Illi (Elleser Galleta) has launched a collective called illiseries which opens discussions on youthful contemporary photography, and also showcases it! check it out!

Also, sorry about this and the previous post. Maybe you can tell from the time of posts, and the general feel of them, but I wrote them while drunk. oops!
(although that doesn't mean that I mean what I wrote any less. If any thing, I meant it more!)
Have a lovely night and weekend!

2009-05-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how often photographers get snubbed the credit they deserve.

Positive example: Here: Cultures In Between. I wouldn't have even found out about this if I had not indulged in the guilty pleasure of Google-ing myself. This came up, and it touched my heart that although having no knowledge of me - or having any personal reasons to give me credit - they found the time to find out the photographer and then, shock of all shocks, give me credit.

I would post a negative example, but there are just too many. Photographs seem to take them selves these days. I write this post because tonight my friend told me about a blog post that featured one of my photographs, that I honestly would not have known about if I didn't have a BFF who was keen on fashion blog knowledge.

Not that I am bitter about this exact post, since it is truly the norm to post photographs with out caring where they come from. But this is the result of some deep seeded problems.

I feel bad even writing this, since I am really grateful for people that have blogged about my photographs, and I understand the importance of blogging and the influence it has, but still! Opinions seem to be that a photographers role is unimportant and that therefore it is acceptable overlook them (financially and otherwise). Apparently we are lucky for any "experience" that we get, because we didn't get enough of it in all those 4 years we studied the art and got taken advantage of in unpaid internships.

Sorry for the complaining, but it had to be done!

Upstate

2009-02-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

Val in upstate NY, 2009

Although it was not as photographically productive as I had hoped, upstate NY was glorious and beautiful!
It was my first time visiting and I spent the whole time being fascianted, since it was completely foreign to me. The style of the houses, the small, winding, snow covered roads.. I want to visit again so I can see it in the phase of a different season-and also to spend some time capturing it with my 4x5.

2009-01-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

Graze, 2008

So! I think travel is really necessary in photography. But that is actually stupidly narrow minded; travel is just really necessary for the type of photography I want to be doing, and the results that I want.
My work schedule at the moment doesn't allow me time to travel, and my funds(ha!) don't seem to allow it either, and I have just been stagnant in many ways for a long time.
Last spring I went back to England for just 2 weeks, and shot about 200 120 rolls, along with 20 4x5's (which looking back at it- still doesn't seem like enough) and the result was my entire graduating portfolio. So in short, 50 weeks of the year in New York City vs. just two weeks in the south of England: I shot more in England, and had more actual shots when all was said and done.
I think it had a lot to do with the planning of the trip and the project, and the fact that the project was something that I felt so passionate about. But it was also successful because I was simply changing the scenery, and felt a sense of urgency, since I knew my time there was limited.

Well, I really want to change things up! I am hoping to take a month off this summer and travel to europe, but I don't know what my money situation will be then so it is tough to plan. Tomorrow morning I am meeting Val in Astoria and then traveling to upstate NY (which I am so excited about - and have been talking about doing for a very long time!), so hopefully I will produce new images then!

2009-01-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

oops, absence!

I have been busy..
anyway! My dear graphically gifted friend Matt Jennings and I have been working on an exchange lately, where he is designing a portfolio for me, and I photograph his portfolio for him (I think I win).

2009-01-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution is:

To become a master of Mahjong!
and other stuff. But mainly the Mahjong thing.

2008-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Yay!
The feature on Mjolk Homme for h(y)r collective! (which used my images) is up!

check it out!!
Here!

2008-11-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

For Marais USA:

This weekend/week kicked my ass. Tomorrow is my first day off in a while, but I still have a million things to do.
A lot of people want my time, I hardly get any of it for myself.
Oh well, enough complaining! I am going to drag my self back to brooklyn now!
yay!

2008-10-22T21:26:00.001-07:00

Also! I updated my website!
with work that I have already shown here, but still.
I am working on a new page which will feature 'New & Commissioned Work' but I have to finish the Marais job first.
All in good time!

And just because, how about a photograph of a donkey?

2008-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

A photo from the Marais USA shoot.

I need the intimate feel of colour printing in the darkroom again!!
I have been spending a lot of time scanning and retouching lately, it's just not the same.

My Mother is in England at the moment and I am monumentally jealous. But of course happy for her!
That is all that is going on with me lately..

Here is an outtake from the Marais USA shoot!

Oklahoma + Grandpa Kaser

2008-10-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

I miss a lot of things about this photograph.

summer + texas

2008-10-19T19:47:00.001-07:00

2008-10-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Kind of random:
Sometimes I just wish a really great pop album like Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out Of This Country would come out again. It was only a couple of years ago, but I am already nostalgic for listening to that album when it was new to me and the feeling I had then.
So good!

2008-10-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Swing, 2008

Lately I have been drawn to images that have a specific colour or focus quality that end up making the photographs resemble paintings. This is clear when I am in the editing-down-my-photos-from-the-contact-sheet stage, but my likes aren't really matching my urges, which have been almost completely commercial lately..
as an example, this was the second least commercial photograph on that roll:

There is no point in even scanning the rest.

oh well.
Swing, 2008 is probably the last image that feels like my own work left on the countless rolls of film I took this summer - which leaves me with a series of 3. I really want to go back and photograph in Texas again, since I don't have access to young subjects here in nyc, and besides, youth is completely different here. I am more interested in the less opulent, and more simple qualities that remind me of youth in the south.

On another note! I have been doing work for Marais USA lately and am excited as the images are turning out.. I am actually in the middle of an 8 hour scanning session at the moment, but thought that since I was at the scanner I might as well sneak in some photo's of my own!
But now I shall go back to the slow pace of hi res scanning.

2008-09-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

Natali on the day of the Mjolk shoot.

I have not had time lately to work the photographs that I take for myself (which for now consists of photos from summer), so that is why the two below are all that are here.. but I think I will have more time to work on them next week..
My mother and father are coming into town this weekend to meet my mothers' half brother's for the first time, so I am very excited and busy preparing for that at the moment!

2008-09-17T22:37:00.001-07:00

Marcus, 2008

2008-09-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

lilli, 2008

2008-09-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

One of the photographs from the mjolk shoot..
Not sure how I feel about them now, I had hoped they would be dreamier..

Life is good for Natasha this week, but not for those who work on Wall St.

2008-09-16T23:33:00.001-07:00

My friend Val is going to take my photograph for her current series, and I am really excited! Since I actually do not have a digital camera, or one of those fancy laptops that have cameras in them, photographs of myself are somewhat rare. So I am thankful for the entire situation. Tomorrow I am TAing a colour printing class (an event that happens every Wednesday) at SVA and afterwards I am going to attend one of those advance screenings of the duchess. Friday night my dearest friend Illi wants me to go to some openings, and my boyfriend and I have declared it date night. I am also planning to scan and send photographs to Lars, and will hopefully be meeting up with a friend from high school sometime this week. And to top it off, my friend jacob is throwing a party with a title! The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain! Truthfully though, it has nothing to do with my fair lady but more to do with tapas and Spanish wine. And then Sunday it is back to manual labor, but even that I enjoy. I am thankful that life is good!
Still can not wait to see some images from the summer! But all in good time.

Sorry if my posts make me seem some what deranged, I write them in my free time: when I am normally sleep deprived. aaaand another photograph, just because:

Traces

2008-09-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, Scratch that idea I had about posting past images. Blogger makes it very complicated to upload images and apparently simply writing out html doesn't cut it! or rather does cut it. cuts your image in half! So if need be, visit my website here to see those.
In recent news, I got 2nd degree burns all over my arm, but it isn't that big a deal. I also met up with Lars from Mjolk Homme and shot a quick fashion story with him over the weekend, with my lovely fake assistant/true friend Natali. It was such a fun shoot and I am really excited about the images. I am also excited about the copious amount of photographs I took over the summer that I am only now having a chance print/scan. I.can.not.wait!!
But for the time being, it is killing me having a blog with no photographs, so here are a couple:

Blog part two

2008-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

So, I created a blog a while ago, but never used it. Since I just graduated from SVA, and will no longer have an audience of peers to show my work to and get feedback from, the time has come for me to take this blogger thing seriously! Unfortunately it had been so long since I had logged into blogger, I had completely forgotten my login info, so I have been forced to get a new one. But it is good! Time for a change and a fresh start!
This blog will be used for me to post my photography as it happens, before it has meaning and what not, while I take the time to think about what I am doing and what everything means.
That being said, I think I will upload some of my past work just so that it is all on here... also I haven't had a chance to scan new work yet, so that will keep me busy!