SUBJECTS

how to shoot and edit.

ASLD’s selection process includes a panel of community members who assess applicants on the quality of their work, how their work ts in with media currently offered at ASLD, and the clarity of their plans for both community engagement and personal growth as an artist throughout the residency, Crisman said.

“Natalia was chosen for her mastery of dance and photography, as well as her excitement around building artistic community as a new Denverite,” Crisman added.

Roberts moved to Denver in early 2022. She divides her time several ways, including having open studio events, teen and adult photographing workshops, and preparing an exhibition scheduled for this summer. It is slated to open mid-June and run through the end of July, when the residency ends.

roughout her work, Roberts tells the stories of people often overlooked, and lets “these overlooked subjects know that their beauty, physicality and potential are seen,” ASLD said in a news release.

e teen workshop Roberts instructed including her teaching the students the basics of photography, such as lighting and how to direct models during photo shoots.

It showed Roberts that “there’s a learning curve for me in teaching teenagers photography,” she said. “By the end of the last couple of classes, I let them make choices for themselves. ey did some really amazing things.” e residency is twofold, giving Roberts her own studio space where she can pho- tograph models for projects.

Roberts also has a duty to promote community engagement.

“She’s been o ering tours of the studio to her audience,” Crisman said. “ ey can ask about her creative process.”

Roberts will conduct a master class in photography for adults titled “Photography Abstraction, Surrealism and Storytelling with the Human Form.” It’s scheduled for March 11-12.

Roberts said the best thing about the residency is getting her own, dedicated workspace.

“It’s all pretty amazing,” she said. “In photography, you are constantly having to rent space and manipulate it, or set up a space in your kitchen, or bathroom or backyard. It’s always a hurried situation. ere’s a lot of negotiating with other people.”

She cited another bene t: “You don’t have to worry about breaking it down and setting it up for the next shoot. You have more energy to spend on the craft of photography.” is experience has given Roberts the freedom to work on and develop her own style more deeply, she said.

“So much of art-making now, you have to make it quick, (and) you have to make it cheap in order to make a living,” Roberts said. “Perhaps more than anything else, it enables us to play and make bad art, (and) learn how to make it good art. Without getting to experiment, you can’t grow.”

To learn more about the Art Students League of Denver, visit asld.org.

To register for Natalia Roberts’ master class in photography, “Photography Abstraction, Surrealism and Storytelling with the Human Form,” visit tinyurl.com/ASLD-RobertsMasterClass.