Natalie Tkachuk

ABOUT WORK

Through photography I try to find beauty in the everyday and in the lost and forgotten. So many treasured items are lost such as books and letters I try to bring these lost and forgotten objects back to life by looking at them from an alternative angle creating new objects from the abstract forms. The series 'Traces' meaning the sign, mark or remnant that someone has left behind are still life photographs of old letters and books which explore ideas of the lost and the forgotten, what a stranger leaves behind, traces of time, memory, and presence. The once private objects have now been made public, the only reason for this is the death of the owners, and they have now become a memorial and shrine to the lost and forgotten, it is the traces we all leave behind. 'Archived Miscellanea' is an ongoing series of obsolete items that no longer have a use; they have been throw away and discarded. These items have been collected and categorised, and these once useful items have been given the importance and significance of something museum worthy. This series is a record of useless items, based on traditional factual photography as a way of recording and archiving my findings and discoveries. 'Posted' leads on from my previous series 'Traces' following themes similar themes. These wartime love letters are retracing the life and love of Maude and Frank. These large format images depicting oversized letters have carefully had individual lines selected to narrate short passages and inform us of the life and love between this couple. These personal letters are like a visual poem, the scrawl of the handwriting, dusty smell, texture, old stamps are like a biography of someone's life, some more warn than others, have been read and re-read.