A Photographer Whose Work Shocks and Confronts

In the famously crowded and popular Café Louvre in the center of Prague, Natalia Vasquez leans across the small table, catching up with an old friend. Dressed in a beige pleated sweater with curly black hair framing her brown animated eyes, she is relaxed and at ease amidst the loud atmosphere.

“I felt protected behind the camera.” 

In fact, Vasquez has not let go of her camera since the age of 8, when she received her first one. Over the years she has experimented with different types, but no matter which, it been one of the few permanent things to her.

“As long as I can remember I had a camera. It helped me see things,” explains Vasquez.

As she reflects eloquently and introspectively on her life  and how coming to Prague and photography have shaped it - she has an easy way of connecting to people. Her long-time friend Hana adds that Vasquez is an idealist and after just an hour with her it is easy to see that.

Intuition as a path to life?

An American expat, she has lived in Prague for seven years. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, she is half Colombian but grew up in Miami. 

She moved to Prague at 23 because she felt a deep and intense connection. She mentions almost too often a love and hate relationship with Prague due to her Latin American cultural background, which causes clashes.

“People will hug and kiss each other without knowing each other where I am from so it’s been difficult for me to adjust to the more closed culture.”

Coming to Prague was “an intuitive thing. I needed to be here to learn many things about myself. It wasn’t going to be easy but I needed to be here.”

It’s clear her photography is an inseparable part of her.

Two Worlds

Her photographic work is divided. There’s her passion for documenting cultural events  throughout Prague and there’s her extraordinary personal photography.

One of her older projects, called “drowning is” is about her experience in dealing with her friend’s death. She describes having her friends go through the pain and discomfort of posing underwater.

Their sinister and psychedelic appearance is difficult to turn away from. This series is her effort to understand and find beauty in something tragic.

“It is something that I try to protect and hold on to because it is very raw and it is very connected to my personal experience.”

However this source of creativity has a dark past.

Vasquez confesses she wrestled with depression “for about 15 years,” when “photography was what helped me to survive.”

She feels that the series she is working on now are the strongest. “It's coming from the experience of depression but it's not coming from me as a depressed person anymore,” says Vasquez.

The project, called “play here don’t get dirty,” features empty playgrounds - or rather spaces the city allows for children to play in.

Vasquez connects this with what she calls her difficult childhood.

“I felt I had things to express that society didn’t allow me to express as a child so for me it’s trying to understand childhood from my perspective but also how difficult it is to be a child,” she explains.

Despite a degree in photography, Vasquez describes how important it was for her to leave academia. 

“It is something that I wanted to put myself through. I come from America where it is basically possible to be in an academic system for your entire life until you have a high paying job.”

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts

One of her projects consisted of an anatomic heart made from wires, paper, foam and glue. She explains an obsession with hearts, pointing at a color anatomic tattoo of one that takes up the width of her lower right arm.

“Having depression made me think about all the things that are wrong with the world but every human being has a heart. I’m obsessed with anatomy. The heart, brain and spine are the things without which we cannot live,” says Vasquez, with a melancholic tone.

Confront yourself!

Vasquez successfully does what great artists strive towards: shocking and confronting the viewer.

"A conscious effort" is a series inspired by a dream.

The photos feature a woman lying naked in dark brown grainy dirt, atop green silk pillows and dark oil paintings inscribed with messages.

Browsing through these photos vulnerabilities arise unexpectedly. Yours or the subject's, it’s hard to distinguish.

Vasquez doesn’t gloss over her subjects but delves right into their core, confronting them, herself and, perhaps most importantly, the viewer.

Try remaining impartial to that.