Shaping America: Natalie Christensen’s 007

View Gallery 13 Photos

Christensen’s latest work examines the shapes and colours of her new southwest home

“Nothing is permanent or solid,” writes Natalie Christensen “Energy is always moving and shifting just out of our awareness. Our strength is just a facade. And these unseen forces are ready to show us how fragile we really are.”

007, the seventh installation in the ongoing collaboration between Setanta Books and Open Doors Gallery, focuses on geometric work by the photographer. Six years ago, she experienced an unplanned move from her home of Kentucky to Santa Fe, New Mexico, leaving her career in psychotherapy at the same time. Reflecting amid her new home, she found a second life in photography, exploring the mix of local architecture and colourful aesthetics. 

Christensen has now exhibited work in London, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. She became one of five photographers invited to exhibit at the National: Best of Contemporary Photography show at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and was recently named a photographer to watch at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.

In 007, Christensen is concerned with the chromatic and geometric environments found across southwest America. Hidden spots, swimming pool corners, cloudy skies and angular concrete all become characters within her archive. The vibrancy is playful and renders her new home otherworldly and mysterious.

Isaac Huxtable

Isaac Huxtable is a freelance writer, as well as a curator at the arts consultancy Artiq. Prior to this, He studied a BA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, followed by roles at British Journal of Photography and The Photographers' Gallery. His words have featured in British Journal of Photography, Elephant Magazine, Galerie Peter Sellim, The Photographers' Gallery, and The South London Gallery. He is particularly interested in documentary ethics, race, gender, class, and the body.