Photographer Feature: Natalie Kristine Castellanos

Hola!  I'm Natalie.

I am a 25 year old Gemini, US-American by nationality and Cuban-American by culture. I grew up in South Florida and have been living in Buenos Aires since the beginning of 2010, studying the law at la Universidad de Buenos Aires with a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation -- the sole purpose of which is to zealously make friends, relentlessly pursue my dreams, and spread peace and goodwill all around the world. : )

  This photo was taken on the first trip I took after moving to Buenos Aires -- 3 friends and I went to El Calafate/El Chalten in Argentina's Patagonia. One our second day we went for an all-day hike to catch a glimpse of Cerro Fitz Roy, but, alas the peak was cloud-covered. Regardless, it was a breathtaking view! The clouds obscuring our view looked like they were painted onto the brilliant blue sky. 

This is one of my favorite photos ever!! In May my mom came to visit me in Argentina. I took her to Tigre, which is an upper-middle class town on a rather large and lazy river about an hour-long train ride north of Buenos Aires. By the end of the day, my mom was tired and wanted to return to the city, but I couldn't get enough of the eerie light that cast its glow on the docks bordering the river as the sun set. I was intent on aligning the lights in the top-center of the photo and didn't notice until I looked through the photos later that evening I had captured the  gentleman with the cigarette on the left. I find myself returning to this photo often... he is an enigma  --  facing away from the river, hand gripping the railing, ostensibly staring ahead at something... the mystery of this man is magic!

I took this photo in El Bolson, Argentina in July of this year. El Bolson is a tiny hippie town, tucked into the most beautiful mountains in the world, about 2 hours south of Bariloche, in Patagonia. My soul stirred so much when I arrived in this town. I felt so alive and peaceful; I am pretty sure when the Big Bang occurred billions of years ago, the pieces of the universe that created me where mingling with the pieces that created the mountains here. This town is famous for its homemade jams, ice cream and beer (deservedly so!) and its weekly artisan fair. I love this photo because it captures the essence of El Bolson's magic -- I really did feel like I was caught up in a dream when I was there. 

This photo was taken in Peru, on the site of one of the many Incan ruins surrounding the city of Cusco. My friends – Sabrina and Alice – and I fell in love with Cusco and the legacy of the Incans within minutes of arriving in the city in the sky (literally -- it's 11,000 feet above sea level!). The altitude and the beauty of the scenery left us breathless and dizzy.

 I took this photographic recently, on the rooftop of my friend Rajiv's building in Palermo (Buenos Aires's hippest neighborhood). This was the warmest day we have had in forever so my friends and I decided to spend the day in the sun drinking sangria. It was a spectacular day with a sunset to match! The beautiful man in the photo is my friend Chase. I like him a lot because he's intelligent, a great conversationalist, uses really funny English and Spanish phrases, and most of all, is a fabulous and patient model for photographs! 

You can find more of Natalie's work on her awesome blog at http://nataliekc.blogspot.com/.  The link is also in the sidebar.

El Calafate/El Chalten, Argentina

Tigre, Argentina

El Bolson, Argentina

Cusco, Peru

and

Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina  

This Buffet Is Jumbo

 There it is.  The Jumbo China Buffet.  It's SO Jumbo that it has seafood, sushi, hibichi (hibachi?), salad, and Mexican food. Because no Chinese Buffet could ever be complete without Mexican food.  The two kind of go together like, well I don't know, two things that don't go together.  Oil and water.  

The best part... there actually wasn't any Mexican food there.

 That's Jenny Haebel and Donna Morris, being fun and silly, which they are a lot, which is one of the many reasons I love them.  They are the reason I ended up at the Jumbo Chinese Buffet.  Jenny and Donna both go to school in Kutztown, so I went up to visit for a night while I was in Pennsylvania in late October.  The three of us went to high school together, and though I don't see them very often, when I do see them, it's always a good time.

 Oh, yes.  This.  This is a close-up of part of the fountain in the entryway of the buffet.  To call this thing epic is an understatement of epic proportions.  It was totally ridiculous.  Little statues of all kinds of stuff covered the thing, and the color changing lights just made it even better.  I just... someone designed this.  Someone said, oh hey guys!  You kow what we need at the front of our restaurant?  A seven foot tall, miniature-covered, color-changing fountain!  DUH!

 Here's Jenny and Donna looking pretty (they are), enjoying their sodas and nummy foods (the food was good).

 This is a little more like it.

 And here's the full scale of the fountain! 

I can't even... what... why???...I mean LOOK!

Ah, Jumbo China Buffet (and Jenny and Donna).  Thanks for the adventure.

Kutztown, Pennsylvania, USA

Do Pigs Have Wings? (some fall-y things)

So, no.  This particular pig does not have wings... but some could!!!  You never know.

These are some very fall-esque photos taken on the grounds of the Brandywine River Museum.  The sexy legs featured belong to my foxy mom, Joan Buck.

Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, USA

When Will My Reflection Show Who I Am Inside?

 

Nope, these photographs aren't double exposures or overlays.  These are photographs taken through the giant glass windows at the Brandywine River Museum. 

Oh hey, look!  It's my feet.

But, no, seriously.  My mom and I went out on a lovely outing to the Brandywine River Museum while I was visiting for a few days at the end of October.  It's one of my favourite museums- it features the work of the painters of the Wyeth family, like NC Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth.  Plus, there's all kinds of other beautiful art too.

 

One of the best things about this museum, though, is that it sits right next to the scenic Brandywine River... hence the museum name.

 

So, yeah.  I went there with my mom and we spent a few hours walking around, looking at the paintings.  Lovely. 

They had all of their classics out, but there was also this great exhibit of Trompe L'oeuil, which is art that looks real.  The imagery is real, but it's art.  For example, there was this one painting, and I am awful and can't remember it's name or the name of the author, but it looked like a college student bulletin board, complete with photographs, banner, and letters home.  The items extended beyond the frame all over the place.  Even from a foot away, the thing looked 3D.  But, standing right there...

 FOOLED YOU.  

It was totally a painting.

Anyways, this got me to thinking about how things never look like what they seem, how we see through some things and not others.  For example, my lovely mom, Joan Buck (in the above photo).  I think she is so pretty.  And not just because she's my mom, because, well, she's just gorgeous. She hates being photographed, and doesn't like seeing pictures of herself.
 Sorry mom, you're on my blog!  Because I can see that you're pretty, and thin, and well dressed, even if you don't believe me.  You thought you were just something normal and real, from standing right there, and I can tell that you're a beautiful work of art from less than a foot away.  Or even ten feet away.

The enigma of the day- this dude.  Flying.  

Ah, but it's just another trick of the eye.  He was walking, doing some dance to the music in his headphones, oblivious to the world around him.  He was doing one thing, this photograph makes it look like another.  Trick of the eye.

And, here's the classic "photographer taking a photo that includes a reflection of herself" photo.  

I've started doing this a lot lately, because, though I just commented on this about my mom, I'm really self- conscious about how I look, and often hate how I turn out in photos.  I wish I was thinner, I wish my eyes were brighter, I wish my hair was naturally straight rather than wavy and poofy.  But, everyone else tells me I look just fine.  I just want to make the self and the work of art one and the same.

I'm starting to think that it might be a lifelong process.

Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, USA

Inspiration Fridays: Vintage Photographs

Lillian Russell, by Falk, NY

Ruth Page dancing the title role in The Birthday of the Infanta, a ballet-pantomime based on the short story by Oscar Wilde  (c.1920)

Dorothy Lamour, 1930s

 Unknown

 Actress Joan Bennett (1910-1990)

 Unknown (but check out that garter!!)

 Actress Mitzi Gaynor (b. 1931)

 Unknown, yet devastatingly romantic

 Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in the Old Vic production of Hamlet.  Kronborg Castle, Elsinore, Denmark.  1937

 Sergei Rachmaninoff’s hands

 Actress Paulette Goddard

Unknown

 

Unknown

Unknown

I feel really bad about having so many uncredited pictures in this post... if anyone knows any of the photographers/ subjects, please let me know!

But, these photos inspire me so much.  They are so refined, so passionate, so lovely... everything I want to be.  Everything I want my art to reflect.

I can only aspire to this.