© NATASJA MARIA FOURIE
Natasja Maria Fourie was born in South Africa in 1986. She studied Visual Communication at the Stellenbosch Academy of Photography and Design in South Africa and later Graphic Design and Art Direction at the AAA School of Art and Advertising in Cape Town. Finding herself in London in 2007, she pursued her interest in photography by enrolling for a work placement at the ultra hip culture magazine, Dazed&Confused and then continued by assisting various fashion photographers including Emma Summerton. Natasja soon realised that the fashion industry was not for her and decided to channel her creativity into work that came from within herself and her intimate relationship with the world.
Fourieʼs work is recognised for depicting human vulnerability and the female body while she examines identity and intimacy. Fourie’s work explores the hidden fragility of the human condition. The main themes she deals with are concerned with the human body, naked portraiture, and the complexities of companionship.
“I have an obsession with the naked portrait. The most beautiful and vulgar things are produced by the human body. The naked body raises intense psychological issues. My portrait work deals with all those complex feelings when one is stripped naked, the feelings of shame, amusement or indifference. Nakedness deals with being human, with being mortal.” Fourie’s work revolves around how we share our lives and bodies.
She is very conscious to establish where her naked portraits stands in relation to a growing tide of pornographic and voyeuristic imagery, aimed at a mostly male audience. Although much of her work employs voyeurism, Fourie has allowed her own life to be put on display through numerous self- investigations in her diary work.
Fourie believes her work portrays her obsession with the relationship between the human mind and the universe, life, love, and the naked portrait and can collectively almost be seen as a poetic self-portrait.
She employs photography not to produce documentary transparency, but ambiguities … Some of these encounters are real, most are accidents and some are absolute fantasy, but at the end they are all born from the same place -the doubts and demons she carries inside herself.
Most of her portrait work conveys the power of the natural surroundings that embrace both creation and ruin, while Fourie contrasts them with the force of the imagination. In her search for identity and intimacy the body becomes a compelling signifier of the lived experience.
Since 2010 Natasja Maria Fourie has had no settled place of residence but has explored and travelled with her partner and created work inspired by their love affair.
Her work has been featured in various publications including GUP, Eyemazing, ART das kunstmagazin , Vice, Colors, Design Indaba and Dazed and Confused .
