Beauty is nourishing, alive, and inherent. My job is to notice, reflect, and celebrate it.
One of the greatest themes you’ll find throughout my body of work is the wholehearted celebration of human beings as an inextricable part of the natural world. Powerful, sensual, creative, and wild. Informed by my background as a Somatic Practitioner, and a lifelong contemplation around what it means to be truly human, I approach portraiture as a practice of presence, facilitating experiences that ground, nourish, connect and empower. With intention, photography becomes a vehicle for transformation, each session a process of self remembrance, self reclamation, and self embrace. I understand beauty to be a foundational state of being, grounded in authenticity, inherent and alive within us all. The images that emerge from our time together serve as anchors to states of courage, belonging, purpose, passion and joy. Together, we explore the mythic nature of our embodied journey through space and time, honoring the unique paths that each of us follow, and the myriad ways in which we all belong.
A few things about me:
* I was born in California but raised on 40 acres in the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas. I still say ‘ya’ll’ & use terms of endearment with the signature ease of the south. If I ever had an accent, it’s gone…except when in the company of other southerners. Then it’s quite suddenly back, with a vengeance.
*I love any study that explores what it is to be truly human. Theology to Mythology to Cosmology to Anthropology to Ecology to Astrology to Psychology to Agnoiology (the study of things which cannot be known.).
*I’ve had a lifelong fascination with healing, and the intersections of Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit within the human experience. Following this thread, I was professionally trained at The Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork, on the island of Kauai, studying Awareness Oriented Structural Integration, Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, and Mindfulness. The skills I gained during this time have profoundly impacted the way I approach portraiture.
* I’m an extroverted introvert. Aquarius, with a Capricorn rising & Cancer moon. Year of the Earth Sheep/Goat. An enneagram 6 with a 7 wing. A Splenic 2/4 Projector in Human Design. An INFP. A 3 of Spades; The Artist.
*I enjoy solitude more than most people, & can be very happily alone for days and weeks on end, but I am also deeply nourished by my relationships. I have many deep, long term friendships. Nothing is more important to me. They give me life. They mean everything.
*I spent many years as a nature and wildlife photographer, approaching my time behind the camera as a daily mindfulness practice. My first portraits were of birds, and I love them still. I see the natural world as an external reflection of our internal landscapes, infused with meaning and intrinsically connected to everything we are and everything we do. This respect and reverence for the wild, within us and all around us, inspires much of my work.
* I was a passionate musician for many years, and a longtime member of several bands with whom I played festivals, toured, and diligently studied. Being a musician was a huge part of my identity. And now it’s not. I don’t know why. One day I stopped playing music and I never started again. My creative expression took new forms. Life’s weird like that. Always changing.
* I love the smell of old books, beeswax, antique varietals of bearded iris, vetiver and vanilla, eucalyptus pathways & last nights campfire in my hair.
* I’m a reader, a writer, a gardener, an artist, an enthusiastic adventurer and also a dedicated homebody…100% a Hobbit.
I look forward to learning more about you…
“There have been only a few things in life that have been as transformative and impactful on my ability to see and appreciate myself as being a subject of Natalia's soulful eye.
— Colin Doyle
“Natalia is a deeply talented and uniquely gifted photographer, who captures not only physical images, but the essence of one’s soul expression. Her photo sessions, and the incredible images that she harvests, empower the heart and inspire one to move more fully toward their inner vision, and embodied experience.
— Sky Asher
“Natalia engaged a part of me that I haven’t been able to access in quite a long time. Dancing with her in the infinite realms of photography revitalized my soul and reminded me of who I truly am.
—Abram Ramal
“Natalia’s photography sessions have been akin to shamanic-level initiations into seeing myself more completely. I have struggled, cried, blossomed and surrendered under the meticulous, playful, alluring mastery of her art. Her extraordinary work is an irreplaceable gift to yourself
— Wren Farris
Reach Out.
natalianewmanphotography@gmail.com
(541)951-0554
Ashland, Oregon
97520
“Beauty is that in the presence of which we feel more alive.”
-John O’Donohue