Love It And Leave It: Nathalie Latham

I met the Australian photographer and filmmaker Nathalie Latham about a year ago when she contacted me at Lalande about doing some high-end scans for her exhibition about Australians who have left the island continent for other ventures and never returned. I know a few of the subjects, including fashion designer Martin Grant who lives and works in Paris.

These elegant black and white portraits were first exhibited at the Australian Embassy in Paris and then at The Australian National Portrait Gallery in Canberra this past spring. Out of her research – interviewing and photographing Australians working in Europe and the US and elsewhere – came the fantastic book, LOVE IT AND LEAVE IT - AUSTRALIA'S CREATIVE DIASPORA, published by T&G Publishing and The Australian National Portrait Gallery (2007, 157 pages).

The photographer writes on her blog that she had never met the designer, Gianni, and the book was assembled and put together via e-mail and phone calls, with Nathalie here in Paris and Gianni in Sydney. "We met for the first time in Singapore the day before the book went to print," she says. The age of technology and publishing! There are only 1000 copies of the book in print, so if you would like one, hurry and contact Gianni (gianni@tgpublishing.com.au) to order it.

Nathalie left the City of Light to move to Go-Go Berlin for a year to live and work in an artist residence there, focusing on her photography and films; for August she has headed off to India to shoot a film. She produced a design for t-shirts (above, middle), which she will distribute to orphans on her trip. Then, she will return to her fabulous studio in Marienenplatz in Berlin. She's currently exhibiting her photographs at "Eating Up Beijing" at Kodak Eastman House Summer Biennale, Rochester, New York through September 2007.