Light, shadow, and doors opened and closed are a few of the subjects of Santa Fe–based photographer Natalie Christensen. Informed by Carl Jung and a twenty-five-year career as a psychotherapist, Christensen looks for symbols in the Southwestern urban landscape that “reveal psychological metaphors.” This careful consideration of symbols aids in the creation of images that are more than studies of form, geometry, color, and light. Her images allude to the presence or absence of choices. In the project Deconstructed Self, Christensen presents pieces of a world that was built for figures, yet none are present. A door is left open to a space not viewable in the frame, but because of a deep blue sliver of sky above the door one can assume a beautiful scene on the other side. In another image the viewer is confronted with a confusing architectural choice to wall in a door but leave the ramp leading to it, a metaphor of “the path to nowhere.” Christensen’s visual choices are clever while leaving room for analysis in her dynamic compositions.
—Angie Rizzo
Natalie Christensen is a photographer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and primarily known for her minimalist urban landscapes and abstractions of the American Southwest. Natalie is a frequent contributor to online contemporary art and photography magazines including Lensculture and Ignant and has shown work both nationally and internationally. See more of her work at nataliechristensenphoto.com.
