Nathalie Gordon never actually intended to be a photographer, even though her university tutor spotted her potential early on. It’s a fact that feels hard to believe once you’ve seen her dazzling approach to beauty photography – an aesthetic that is completely assured, deliciously high-end, and defined by a signature use of high-impact gloss and vibrant colour.
While finding her distinct macro-beauty style was a creative breakthrough, it was also a matter of survival. When Nathalie took the leap from London to Los Angeles, she did so with a ticking clock: she had just three years to secure a working visa. To stay, she had to prove her work was more “exceptional” than the competition. That high-stakes pressure fuelled her creative development, and the gamble paid off; she now holds permanent residency in LA, shooting for global giants like Wella, Starbucks, Louis Vuitton, and Clinique.
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(Image credit: Nathalie Gordon)
Nathalie’s photography roots are in live music – she spent years touring with global acts. However, she found the spontaneity of the stage at odds with her hunger for perfectionism, a trait she admits is “like crack.”
“The stage is already set, the lights are already set. The artist comes out, and I’m just documenting what I see,” Nathalie explains. “Whilst that’s fun and interesting, I almost wanted to freeze-frame the artist and say, ‘Oh wait, can you go back and do that again?'”
Her mum owned a hair salon in South London, so beauty felt like a natural next step, but she needed a change of scenery to ignite her creativity. “I think that I’m a product of my environment,” she says of her move to California. “In London, it was the monotony of everything. I was forcing myself to do it because I knew I had to. In LA, I’ve got physical space, it’s so vast, whereas London felt cramped and contained.”
(Image credit: Nathalie Gordon)
Nathalie loved LA so much that she was determined to stay. The visa urgency meant she needed a strong commercial edge that would make her indispensable – a signature she had developed, almost by accident, through experimentation with a 100mm macro lens. When paired with her instinctive use of vibrant colour, she found her formula for success.
“I think I’ve always been drawn to bright colours; having Caribbean heritage, it’s just natural,” Nathalie explains. “But when I bought that lens… I didn’t know how close I could get to people’s faces – shooting eyelashes, eyes, and lips. I discovered that by accident, just from having that lens alone. I didn’t really realise I’d developed a niche until someone said, ‘Oh, you do a lot of macro beauty, don’t you?’ and I was just like, ‘Oh yeah, I do.'”
(Image credit: Nathalie Gordon)
When I ask her how easy it is to feel you can develop a style that’s already commercially successful, Nathalie opens up about her next chapter. Having spent years ‘performing excellence’ to satisfy visa requirements – a process she admits was exhausting – she is ready for a new direction and a fresh source of motivation.
“I kind of get a bit bored of how commercial my work looks, but that was kind of because of the situation. I had to prove that I was more talented than another, say, American photographer,” she says. “Now that I’m a permanent resident, I can do anything. I don’t have to conform to something that’s clean and commercial looking, I can really lean into being an artist.”
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This shift is already yielding results. Nathalie was recently named a chosen winner for the American Photography Awards for a project that pushed her far beyond her usual boundaries. “It was quite dark and moody, completely out of my comfort zone,” she says. “It was one of the first shoots where I was just experimenting, and it made me realise: ‘Oh wow, I can do good stuff.'”
(Image credit: Nathalie Gordon)
Nathalie also has ambitions to bring her own signature style into car photography. She’s loved cars since she was a child, and sees a gap in the market. “I love shooting beauty and makeup, but I can do it with my eyes closed. With the car stuff like there’s a passion of mine,” she enthuses.
“I want to portray the emotion I get from driving, the freedom. I do my best thinking in the shower or when I’m driving – it’s about trying to encapsulate that emotion.”
(Image credit: Nathalie Gordon)
Given Nathalie’s remarkable grit, her success in this new field seems inevitable. For those hesitant to take their own leap, her advice is direct:
“It’s gonna sound really blunt: just go be brave. You’re gonna stress, you’re gonna have anxiety, but ask questions. You gotta take the chance. A friend told me, ‘Don’t worry, because if you don’t like it, you can always come back.’ And that’s true.”
Find Nathalie on her website, or over on Instagram @photonatalie.