Nina Hauben
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Nina Hauben is a fine art photographer in Amsterdam who works in black and white. She came to it after studying fashion management and working in marketing and art direction. Her work moves in phases. With(out) grew out of a fear that memories fade like smoke; when you can no longer hear someone's voice or footsteps, she says, all you can do is pretend, so that is what she did in the pictures. It was grief, though she only named it later. In Silent Dialogue she turned the camera away from her subjects and let the body move instead, something that comes from her years in dance. This year she shows at the Hungry Eye Fair and PAN Amsterdam.
Q: You studied fashion in Amsterdam. How did you end up in fine art photography?
A: It unfolded organically. I studied International Fashion Management at AMFI and began my career in fashion marketing and art direction. I felt drawn to the visual side, and to a growing entrepreneurial desire to build something of my own. Photography brings all these elements together; for me, it is where emotion becomes image.
Q: Your work comes in phases, one series growing out of the last. How does a new one usually start for you?
A: My process is intuitive, guided by my emotions and experiences. A new series starts with something from my own life that I need to translate before I understand it, an idea that personally resonates.
Then comes a question the previous series could not answer. "With(out)" examined the fragility of memory: what remains when someone can no longer be reached. Later on it went from absence toward presence, from stillness to quiet renewal. That became "Silent Dialogue". Each phase is different; together they form one ongoing process.
Q: When did grief become part of your photographs?
A: It was there from the beginning, before I named it. "With(out)" came from the fear that memories, like wisps of smoke, dissipate with time, leaving a void that cannot be filled.
I wish I could have collected more of them. When you can no longer hear someone's voice, their footsteps, or feel their presence, all you can do is pretend, so that is what I did, in photographs. Looking back, that was grief. My work was speaking it before I could.
Q: You work almost entirely in black and white. Why does it feel right for you?
A: My work is a visual narrative of (un)spoken words, and black and white feels closest to that. I see photography as a language I need to speak to express feelings I cannot say otherwise, and this language happens to be black and white.
Q: In Silent Dialogue the body takes over, dancing, turning away. What brought movement into such still work?
A: Movement comes from my background in dance. The body says things before words arrive, and often instead of them; dance taught me that long before photography did. In "Silent Dialogue" I stopped directing toward the camera and started directing away from it, letting the body move until something happened.
Q: What projects are you working on right now, and what's coming next?
A: This summer I photographed a new body of work in rural France with the sculptor Elie Hirsch, where his sculptural objects come to life. This personal series is now taking shape. What I can share: my work will be shown at the Hungry Eye Fair in Amsterdam and at PAN Amsterdam with Hungry Eye Gallery. I always say the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. Through my work I keep discovering more about myself, and as long as I am creating, I know I am on the right path.
