Steven Natusch Confronts Nostalgia and Uncertainty by Photographing the Unfamiliar

The German artist delves into the feeling of being a stranger, trying to find a home in an idea and clinging to it. He moves non-linearly through imaginary worlds, creating clusters of contradictions with his suggestive and associative images.

I remember the warm light shining on my skin in the evening. Nobody recognises me here, no interact with people but only brushing the shoulders of strangers within the narrow streets of the town. My language is seldom heard. I escaped into a state of emotional floating, being confronted only with a life well spent, full of contradictions. Are you aware of how obsessive you sound? The feeling of Nostalgia crashes down upon me with an unpleasant force.

All my life, I have been someone that bloomed the most in situations which had a lack of familiarity, a lack of certainty. Being solitaire within such an environment, my emotional perception was always the strongest.

I thought, I recognised the back of your head up north in town. While strolling through the night, my stay here feels fragile but irretrievable at the same time. Every night as I come home, I cling to the memories that never existed. But the shock hurts more than a slap in the face, so I go to bed and listen to the seagulls singing for the Atlantic at four in the morning.

There’s a constantly felt shiver trying to catch the wind between my fingertips. I may never get back this free, unattached feeling of solitude. Being so stuck in the present and lost to the past feels as if one is continuously stumbling and then catches oneself again, shortly before falling, only to continue stumbling again.

I was here the whole time.

Words and pictures by Steven Natusch

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Steven Natusch (1993) is a photographer and artist who lives and works in Dortmund, Germany. In his work, he seeks to use photographic images as a visual-lyrical language that negotiates primarily emotional states, existential questions, and elemental experiences. His photographic works have been shown at the Rencontres d'Arles, the Biennale of Contemporary Arts Dortmund and the Künstlerhaus Dortmund among others. He was nominated for the Portfolio Prize of the Imago Lisboa Photo Festival 2021 and the Kassel Dummy Award 2022. Follow him on Instagram and PhMuseum.

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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PhMuseum curators.