Riley Natalova
New York City has always been THE place for exuberant artists to flock together. Wearing torn leather jackets and fraying shoelaces, radicalizing and terrorizing the masses for decades; the local DIY-ers have created a space for creation and destruction. Counter-culture is always evolving to fit changing generational contention but the overarching need for autonomy while still having community will always be reflected in the scene. Through my work, I document the electrifying energy of the stage, or in this case often more likely the grimy floor of a basement. I document our lives off the stage, cooking community dinners, recording EPs, frolicking the city streets at odd hours of the night, capturing the reality of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Growing up in NYC is an experience outsiders can’t fully understand, dynamics of city life figured out by an 11-year-old alone on the subway or a 15-year-old roaming Tompkins Square Park. The DIY scene was built by city kids; creative, resilient, and unmistakably human. There has been a lack of permanence in our digital age, through the usage of 35mm film I create a body of work dedicated to remembering.
Riley Natalova (they/them) is a 22-year-old Native New Yorker documenting the local DIY scene since 2020 through 35mm film. Currently a student at Pace University studying creative writing and minoring in art, they are an inspiring librarian. They currently work at the International Center of Photography’s library as a library assistant.