Texts by Natasha Becker
MA Thesis
Becker, Natasha (2002) Inside and Outside the Family Album. Making, exhibiting and archiving the photograph in the South African National Gallery and the National Library of South Africa. Univerity of the Western Cape.
Available here
One of the first things that reached me about photography was how a photograph tells a story or stories. This experience is perhaps most common when viewing personal photographs. A few years ago I was looking through a vast number of personal photographs, of a family I knew well, and was struck by how all the photographs (in albums, framed or lying loosely about) were part of a particular family narrative. Even without the storytelling, which accompanied my viewing of the photographs, I could still ‘read’ bits and pieces of the family history (and the broader social, political and cultural histories) in their photographs.
Journal articles and essays
Becker, Natasha (2021) ‘In the Wake of Okwui Enwezor’. NKA: Journal for Contemporary African Art. Special Issue on Curator Okwui Enwezor.
Available here
Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘To Imagine a Future World’. Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue, Present Passing, Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China. March 2020.
Book available here
Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Forever if Composed of Nows’ Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue , A.I.R gallery, New York, NY. February 2020.
Press release PDF
Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Pushing Through a Public Memorial’. Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. February 2020.
Available here
Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘An Ode to Love’ Curatorial Essay, Ford Foundation Art Gallery, New York, NY. may 2019.
Available here
Becker, Natasha. 2015 ‘Encountering Virginia Chihota’ Exhibition catalogue essay, Tiwani Contemporary: Virginia Chihota. A Thorn In My Flesh (munzwa munyama yangu). October 2015.
Available here
Becker, Natasha (2008) ‘Primitivism revisited: After the end of an idea’. African Arts, 41:1, 86-88.
Available here [download pdf here]
Becker, Natasha (2001) ‘The “Lives of Colour” Exhibition. South African National Gallery, September 1999’ Kronos 27 Visual History, 270-291.
Available here [download pdf here]
News Articles
Becker, Natasha (2021) Tschabalala Self with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. March 2021.
Available here
Becker, Natasha (2022) Gary Simmons with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. May 2022. Available here
Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘Where Does My Heart Reside?’ Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. November 2019.
Available here
