Collages

Coalescing

Portraiture

After graduating magna cum laude from Philadelphia's Drexel University with a degree in Photography, L.A. based artist Natalie Obermaier moved to Seattle where she worked alongside acclaimed photographer, Jock Sturges. Working in the darkroom five days a week for three years, she mastered the craft of traditional printing, while also managing his studio. Her early bodies of work in black and white film are soulful and classic, showing a natural and deep connection with the people she photographs. Currently Obermaier has turned her attention to hand-cut collage, sourcing her materials primarily from the glossy pages of women's fashion magazines.

Coalescing is a series of collages made in response to the incessant onslaught of mass media and pressures of mainstream beauty standards found within. Women's fashion magazines in particular stand at a crossroads of cult, consumerism and the unattainable image.

Regarding her portraiture, this is what she has said about her process:
"I see most of my images as self portraits, and I am always working to understand myself through the mirror of my photographs. When I have a subject in front of me, I see light and form and tone, when I have the image in front of me, I see myself. The photographs function as my voice and when they are effective I am able to speak. Many of my images are the result of of just having my camera on me; however, I work in two ways, I either set up a shoot with my subject or I take my camera out into the world and discover. I usually don’t direct other than to have them in the area of the room where the list is good and have them freeze when the moment is right. Passive directing. Waiting for the genius in them. Hoping that I identify it when I see it. I like to throw myself into a group of children at play and situate myself so that they forget the camera is even there. Because I am in essence seeking to capture aspects of myself, I am asking them to play a part for me, but I don’t ask. I ask just by being there. I wait for it to happen in front of me and silently beg that they won’t turn on the smile out of habit and proximity to a camera. The hasselblad serves me well in that respect. Because I use the waist-level viewfinder, and thus don’t have a camera up to my eye, they don’t always know to be prepared to pose. I often feel, when looking at my contact sheets, like I got extremely lucky, but obviously I understand that it’s my artistry, not chance. Only, artistry isn’t the right word. It isn’t skill or talent or aesthetic or methodology. There is something about seeing the world play out in front of you, and selecting one instance. The story doesn't happen until it arrives on the plane of the two dimensional surface. That’s when the allegory creates itself."