Natalie Krick: 2017 Portfolio Prize Winner

Natalie Krick’s series Natural Deceptions explores the temptations and degradations that can be found across the spectrum of feminine identity and selfhood. Made in collaboration with her mother and sister, Krick’s colorful photographs infuse imagery found in fashion campaigns or celebrity portraiture with her own witty inflection.

Krick’s multilayered, visually complex photographs challenge the viewer to consider the layers of self, of destiny as defined by heredity and family resemblances, and of projections of what we want to see. “My mother, my sister, and I perform for each other, for the camera, and ultimately for you,” says Krick. “We impersonate each other and ourselves, emulating imagery that taught us to be beautiful.” Each photograph becomes a puzzle, an optical illusion that plays with the nature of photography as it relates to aging, the hypersexualizing of women in popular culture, and perceptions of identity.

About the Aperture Portfolio Prize
The purpose of the Aperture Portfolio Prize is to identify high-quality work by new voices in contemporary photography. When choosing the first-prize winner and runners-up, Aperture’s editorial and curatorial staff look for innovative bodies of work that haven’t been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.

The Portfolio Prize is open to Aperture magazine print subscribers, for more information about the prize, visit aperture.org/portfolio-prize.

Also On View:
The 2017 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Shortlist

Aperture Foundation’s public programs are supported, in part, by generous donations from our Board of Trustees, our members and other individuals, and from corporate foundations and private foundations including: Grace Jones Richardson Trust, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.