"An immense world within a rectangular frame: The portrait of photographer Natalia Urmanova"
by HILL Uzbekistan
“A keen gaze from my father looked at me through the lens of an old film camera. ‘One more time — we need to try the new film,’ he would say, persuading me to pose again. Dad was relentless, constantly taking pictures of my mother, sister, and me.
Her journey into the world of art was not sparked by a single moment, but shaped by a series of events that led to an inevitable realization: the camera is not merely a tool — it’s a language. Even as a child, she sensed the essence of portraiture lay in feeling what lies beyond the frame. After graduating from the Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Natalia moved to Dubai, where she spent 18 years building a successful career in fashion retail. Working with leading brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Saint Laurent, she wasn’t just managing operations — she discovered the magic of transformation that fashion holds.
Closing, she observed, was not merely a material object but a story; a force capable of reshaping identity. Yet, despite her success, Natalia eventually felt the call to pivot. “The fashion industry is demanding and voracious. It’s ruled by numbers and an endless race,” she notes. There came a moment when she knew it was time to seek a space where creativity would not be confined by the boundaries of commerce. That moment arrived unexpectedly — during a trip to New York. A meeting with a photographer friend became a turning point. When Natalia held a camera in her hands, it wasn’t mere curiosity — it was a revelation. The camera became a portal between the visible and the invisible, and photography, not a craft, but a medium through which to understand and narrate human stories, whether captured on film or digitally.
For Natalia, photography is a dialogue in which the subject becomes a guide into a world of emotion and meaning
In just two and a half years, Natalia held two major exhibitions in Dubai. The first, The Power of Vision, took place in the Zaha Hadid building and explored the depth and im- pact of the human gaze. Over 100 works immersed viewers in a space where the city’s architecture met the architecture of the soul. Her second exhibition, The Canvas of Life, was a collaboration with jewelry designer Elvira Yurova, reflecting on the human being as a living artwork — where every moment and every choice adds a stroke to the canvas of existence.
But Natalia’s greatest discovery is not in the images themselves, but in the power they hold. “Why are artists obsessed, even seemingly selfish?” she often muses. “It’s the process of creation — being filled with a force that dissolves the boundary between the possible and the impossible.” Through the lens, she doesn’t just capture a moment; she reveals theperson — their beauty, their depth, their singular presence. For Natalia, photography is a dialogue in which the subject becomes a guide into a world of emotion and meaning.
Now, Natalia Urmanova is preparing to present her work in Uzbekistan — the place where it all began. For her, this is more than a return home. It is a chance to bridge cultures and, through the camera’s eye, reveal the beauty of the soul — timeless, borderless. Beneath the lines of her story runs a quiet gratitude to her father, who first showed her the world through a viewfinder. Natalia’s enduring message is simple yet profound: we are all divine masterpieces, and the world is the canvas on which our portraits are painted.
