“I grew up on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. There’s lots of Northern Beaches refugees up here, my hubby included. I moved to Lismore in 2000 and at that point only knew one other person. I’ve had many different careers, getting on now as I’m heading for 50. All my jobs have been fuelled by what I’m interested in. First job was at a bookshop because, avid reader. Next job was at an artist’s studio for a magazine house. I saw Dirty Dancing at 16 and fell in love with Patrick Swayze and I decided that I wanted to teach people dancing and so years later that’s what I did. I announced to my family that I was going to teach Ballroom and Latin dancing to which they reminded me that I have never danced a step of it. I said, I know but Im going to learn! so I did and I taught that for a while.
I’d been riding Motorbikes for years and I met a guy who rode as well. He worked in the industry and asked me to try it out. I knew nothing other than how to put the key in the ignition. I had to learn everything about spare parts etc. I worked there for years and ended up training the new kids. That’s what brought me up here and within a year everything fell apart. Job failed, relationship failed, my family thought I’d move back but I wanted to stay. I ended up getting a job with Nick in The Audio Room as I knew him in Sydney. We ended up getting together, married and worked together for 8 years. By that stage I had picked up a camera again, became obsessed, people wanting photos, people paying me to take photos. Nick fired me so I could pursue it. Ha! He said if it didn’t work I could go back, that was 7 years ago.
NATSKY is my business name and was a nickname also. Its the first 3 and last 3 letters of my name, Natalie Barovsky.
I do the LIsmore CBD mag, The Nimbin Faces, The Lantern Parade and a lot of Lismore Council events. I also do weddings and music. I’ve always had this crazy idea of a dedicated photography gallery and I had been looking for an office out of home. On a whim had seen the old Hurfords hardware building advertised, peered through the window, came up stairs and saw not only an office but a gallery space so it’s been crazy getting it open but here we are. We have 4 creative offices, a photographer, a printer, a graphic designer and a writer in there currently. We also have a workshop and soon a darkroom, a cafe and a studio.
To make the place work we need photographers exhibiting on the walls. Without that happening the whole thing will fall apart so all you humans out there with a penchant for taking pretty pictures and not sharing them, start sharing! It needs to be good imagery and that can be any kind, landscape, portraiture, street photography, macro It doesn’t matter if it’s been taken on an i-phone, a point and shoot, a pinhole camera. The camera isn’t relevant. It’s just about the images. I dont take commision, you get to keep all the money because it’s your work. Thank goodness for Roller Derby, that’s my stress relief, my escape.
I visited Lismore in 96, I rode a motorbike up here with my boyfriend at the time. It rained from Sydney to Rosebank and it was huge. We stayed at Rosebank and it rained everyday. It didn’t matter, sitting on a verandah, looking over this beautiful misty valley, cockatoos flying over. That started my love affair with the North Coast. I finally came 4 years later. 3 weeks after moving here, not knowing a soul and the Lantern Parade was on. That’s what made me realise I’d moved to the right place. There were kids running around in rainbow tutu’s and fairy wings, total strangers laughing and talking to each other and it was just gorgeous. That sense of community and the vibe I got that night was, Yeah, I’m home! I think Lismore is awesome in spite of it’s bumps. It’s changing so much, it feels a lot like the old Newtown. I love the different mindsets, the diversity. In Sydney you have to go to a particular area to see a particular thing. In Lismore we have everything you would find in a city but it’s condensed into a little space so we get exposed to everything, good and bad, I don’t mind that. I like being exposed to all the different aspects, it’s good for community, you realise how lucky you are. Lismore feels home!