Natalie Jackson Photography

Artist Statement on The Allure of Ebony

I created this body of work to offer a glimpse into timeless beauty- an essence that transcends eras, rooted in dignity, resilience, and light. I use photography and collage to honor the depth and spirit that endures beyond the fleeting moment.

Artist Statement on Acknowledgement

Straight, No Chaser is a Jazz series of photography I’ve created to express my love for the music. I grew up in a home constantly pulsating with many genres of musical rhythms. Jazz has always been a favorite.

I titled this work after the Monk tune, Straight, No Chaser because, like jazz, it’s made up of improvisation and distortion and is anything but straight photography. Like straight ahead jazz, its fluidity is unpredictable. I capture an image with my camera and alter it so that the viewer only sees what I deem important. I eliminate many details, but your mind fills in the gaps and what you finally see on the canvas is only limited by your imagination. As Monk once said, “Don’t play everything;… What you don’t play can be more important than what you do.”

This body of work depicts Jazz, an African American art form that is truly a universal treasure. The work is a vibrant, rhythmically visual expression of music that I hope its viewer will not only see, but also hear.

Biography

Truth, Beauty, and Pride are the themes of photographer Natalie Jackson's work. They come together to tell gripping stories of Black life, past and present. Having lived in Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Charlotte, she gathered experiences, education, and history and returned to the Midwest. She has worked as a staff photographer for Good News Magazine in Atlanta, Georgia to a medical photographer for Soderstrom Skin Institute in Peoria, Illinois. Years after receiving a Marketing degree she went back to school to study photography, a lifelong passion. Her longtime hobby quickly became a means for expression. Notable projects were a shoot for Art AIDS Africa, Jane Fonda’s Lost Boys of Sudan project, and a birthday shoot for jazz artist Freddy Cole. She currently resides in Peoria, Illinois where she sits on the Board of Directors at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria and the Central Illinois Jazz Society. She has a studio and gallery in her father, artist, Preston Jackson’s building, the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria. She shoots, sells, and displays her artwork there. Her most widely known body of work, Crowns of Empowerment, is a love letter to the Black woman who is often neglected and disrespected. It is a series of empowering pieces, highlighting the importance of the Black woman's role throughout history. This exhibition opened in the spring of 2017 and continues to travel and educate today. Solo exhibitions of Crowns of Empowerment in Time Gallery 2017, Contemporary Art Center of Peoria 2017, SAUK Community College 2019, Macomb Art Center 2020, and McLean County Art Center 2020. Solo exhibition, And Still I Rise, highlighted her work’s connection to The 1619 Project. Her piece, The Juxtaposition of Ebony, was purchased and presented to Treyvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon in January 2022, by the City of Peoria’s Employees for Community Concerns. She’s been awarded several photography awards including the Award of Excellence at the Peoria Fine Art Fair 2018, and First Place Photography in Decatur Fine Art Fair 2019 and 2024. She was a winner of Art Pop in 2019 and Sky Art in 2021 which resulted in billboards of her work displayed throughout the region for an entire year. She was selected as a juror for the Peoria Sculpture Walk in 2018 and Photography Exhibition at Buchanan Center for the Arts in 2020. In 2022 she won the Purchase Award for her piece Triptych Warrior in National Juried Exhibition at Buchanan Art Center. In May 2023, her jazz art body of work, Straight, No Chaser, was a solo exhibit at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in Monmouth, Illinois. In 2024, she exhibited The Boldness of Being on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. She served as juror for the Buchanan Center for the Arts Photography Show. Her work was juried into the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center exhibition Black Joy Social Justice in 2024. She has now produced two photo books of her most noted bodies of work, Crowns of Empowerment and Straight, No Chaser.