leap

today I turn 30. 

yesterday I jumped off a bridge.

Bungee! from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

made a trek to death valley & badwater basin a few days ago. the desert is my favourite type of environment, & I find death valley to be mesmerizing.

the plan was to experiment more with my new nikon d7500 dslr & it was a success. captured some fun photographs & shot some cool video while out in the desert wilds.

1: sunset at zabriskie point.
can the dslr do time lapse videos I wondered? yes it can. managed to capture this amazing shot of the sunset in death valley on my first ever time lapse experiment.


Sunset at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

2: poem film - badlands.
got out on the salt flats at badwater basin & thought: why not take some videos just to see? ended up with a few cuts which I've pieced together with my poem for that day (day 354 of the poem a day project). my first ever video shot with the new camera, experimenting with frames per second & the like. it ended up a little wobbly, but I still like it. I'm learning as I go.


Badlands from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

3: the real goal - photos
initially headed out to death valley to take some pictures, & got some fun shots of my friend/road trip companion. I've added a digital photography section to my website where more portraits & other photography will be added regularly.

reeling

My project of late has been to work on the frozen-in-place-ness I feel because none of my work is perfect, or good enough, or made on fancy equipment. It's a kind of imposter syndrome I guess. I keep wanting to wait to begin until I am sure I will already be good at it (great?) & I have the excellent cameras & lenses & stabilizers to go with it. But if I keep waiting for these things I'll never get anything done at all.

So, to that end, my first ever directing reel went live today in all it's rough glory. I am still working on the audio & music, & have a few more projects I am hoping to add soon, but this is my first go. Watch it below or on my website: natalieraymond.com/reel.



Natalie Raymond Directing Reel (Rough Cut) from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

eclipsing

A post shared by N (@natalie_raymond) on Aug 24, 2017 at 4:40pm PDT

Lime

Made my way to Lime, Oregon to watch the solar eclipse. Lime is an abandoned cement factory in Baker Country on the eastern edge of Oregon. The eclipse was absolutely stunning, but impossible to capture in photos. I am fascinated by abandoned places though, & made a short documentary about Lime. Watch the complete documentary below & check out my photography from the site at natalieraymond.com/lime.


Lime, Oregon from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

sun + sand + videos

A post shared by N (@natalie_raymond) on Aug 17, 2017 at 4:48pm PDT

sometimes the sky is so blue
it looks like cobalt paint.

more to come.

movements

A post shared by N (@natalie_raymond) on Jul 12, 2017 at 2:28pm PDT

los angeles stretches out like bones under taut skin.
no one was made here
we all came
to be born or
die.

Poem A Day: Day 127 - Care from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

from my poem a day project: yesterday's poem, day 127.

thinking about what being able to get the healthcare you need means/feels like. & why it's hard to dig out our healthcare traumas to try to beg other people not to strip us of that access, limited as it already is. seeing all these people on twitter talking about how they or their children would be dead without the ACA is so upsetting to me. we shouldn't have to relive our traumas for public consumption to be deemed worthy of a basic human right. & it's made even worse by the fact that the people who would take what small steps toward healthcare we have away from us don't care about our suffering.

debuts

After much waiting & toil, my directorial debut short film is finally online for your viewing pleasure! Learn more about the film at natalieraymond.com/4bfilm & watch it in its entirety below.


4B (FULL FILM) from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

BONES

The first look trailer for my short film/poetry project BONES is live! Watch it below.

shock, horror, anger

no words for the atrocity we have committed against our country. 

all I have left is poems. read the zine on my website.

everybody loves a blooper

4B Bloopers from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.
Enjoy some tasty antics & outtakes from my directorial debut short film, 4B!

more info about the film: natalieraymond.com/4bfilm

A video posted by N (@natalie_raymond) on May 5, 2016 at 8:12pm PDT

graduating with my MFA on friday. 

current listening: FKA Twigs.


new work published today on NoiseMedium.

readings on film

Had such a wonderful time reading this past Saturday with some lovely poets from CalArts. Thank you to all who came out! Keep a lookout for information about our MFA Graduate group reading this May. Check out some video of my half of the reading below.

Next Words 2016 Reading from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

Reading some poems from my graduate thesis at Nue Studio & Cafe on 27 Feb 2016.

reading poems

Reading at Poetic Reseach Bureau! from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

Reading two poems at the Poetic Research Bureau in downtown LA, 11 December 2015.

getting a little psycho this halloween

wanna watch me wrapped in sheet paying tribute to my all time favourite scary flick, psycho? you're in luck, that's exactly what I have for you this halloween!


a tribute to psycho from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo .

I'm such a dork, but I had a jolly good time making this lil nerd video. also: lol ignore my little bugs... I left my window open all day before I realized there was a giant hole in my screen. whoops.

Happy Halloween & Blessed Samhain to all.

itty bitty ditty about me

made a lil video about me.

find it on my website or watch below.

About Me! from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

on the gorgeous nothings

video of Jen Bervin and Marta Werner talking about the gorgeous nothings: Emily Dickinson's envelope poems. 

near to the wild heart

In putting together my final MFA packet of this semester I was tasked with writing an annotation of Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart. The novel is influenced by James Joyce & is written almost entirely in an introspective dialogue. There is very little, if any, physical action. Reading the book felt like being lost in a blue waterworld, with no direction & no footholds to grasp at. Needless to say, I wasn't sure how to write about it.

So I put together this audio/visual piece called lispector blue as a kind of response/exploration of the process of reading the book.

lispector blue from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.