While we eat together in a busy bar, Nathalie speaks German and Swedish alternately, but when she came to Stockholm a few years ago, she couldn't speak Swedish or English. It was difficult at first, she says, but it was educational. In general, she prefers to talk about educational experiences - never bad ones. Instead, she tells us about her 'moment of glory' when some of her students discovered the Pickmotion postcard with her motif in a bookshop. "And I hadn't even seen it myself, it was very funny," she remembers.
She likes to take photos spontaneously and always has her camera with her. That's why she also likes to go out on foot to take photos, let her mind wander and take in her surroundings. "I'm the flâneuse," she says and laughs. On the way to work or back, Nathalie always finds an opportunity to take photos - especially in Stockholm, which she considers to be the most beautiful city in Scandinavia. She finds the city particularly beautiful when it's foggy.
When asked what exactly constitutes beauty for her, she answers: "If it's too perfect, it's not beautiful. Then it's just perfect. Too perfect." It's often the interplay of beauty and imperfection that gives charm, such as the cracks in the facades of houses in Italy and France. Many German cities are therefore too perfect for her - with the exception of Berlin. She briefly raves about the diversity of our capital, the meeting of many different styles. Here too, it is the imperfection that, in her opinion, gives the city charm. "It's a complicated balance between the ugly and the beautiful."
She posts almost daily on Instagram as @nathaliec136 - for five years now. She particularly likes the community, the fact that she can count on the hospitality of other photographers when she travels. But also the networking within Stockholm, with Swedes who are also photography enthusiasts. She says she has actually learned almost only good things from Instagram and met many people. Nathalie tells us that she has loved taking photos since she was a child. The fact that it has caught on since then may also be because, in her own opinion, she has no talent for drawing and painting. When she talks about taking photos, however, it sounds like it's child's play - the feeling for the right composition and visual language is second nature to her. We ask her what photography means to her. "It's a passion. It's much more than a hobby. A hobby that you do once a week. I take photos every day!"
