4 minute read
Capturing Change
from FlyNamibia May 2024
Rachel Futter's Journey from Conservationist to Incidental Photographer
Rachel Futter is a Namibian woman making her mark in the world of conservation as the senior coordinator for the Combating Wildlife Crime projects at the Namibia Nature Foundation. She is passionate about life, nature, art, movement and much more. She is also fast becoming a renowned photographer, an area of her life where she gets to express her artistic side.
She became a photographer through a fateful moment. After finishing her studies, Rachel was looking to do something that challenged her. It was then, en route to a Tuareg music festival (Festival au désert) which took place just outside of Timbuktu, Mali, that she bought a camera. She simply wanted to document the incredible trip she was taking, but it turned out to be one of those destined moments, where photography found her.
Rachel grew up in a creative single-parent household, with a music loving, artistic mother. Today, Rachel’s photography has become her art. She explains that she loves getting lost in the present moment which she finds through photography. “With photography, I can wander off and be alone and photograph things that are beautiful to me. I can spend hours doing that. My favourite things to photograph are abstracts. I might not necessarily see the finished photograph when I take it, but it reveals itself later. I find that when I wander off into nature, looking through my lens – whether physically or metaphorically – I see things differently. I see how the light catches certain angles differently. I love taking photographs of the abstract detail rather than the thing in its entirety. To me, some of the most beautiful photographs I’ve taken are of the broken, imperfect things; the ones less aesthetically pleasing to most. It’s the patterns and shapes. I see the music, the colours that come out when you look at it like that. It’s beautiful.”
Rachel’s proudest moment as a photographer was when she sold her first print. “My mom was still alive. She was so chuffed. She never pushed art on me but always encouraged me to take my photography seriously. I hope to have a solo exhibition one day – I know she would have loved that. That’s the dream.”
Her hope is to show the world through her photography that anyone can be creative. “You don’t have to know everything about any form of artistic expression before you’re allowed to give it a go. If you have a curiosity, give it a shot. Worst case, you delete the photos, chuck a canvas, or never get asked to bake school cupcakes again. You owe it to yourself to try. But give it a go a few times because practice does help.” She adds that she feels Namibians are extremely supportive of one another’s artistic expression. “Especially when we talk about our creativity, people would say, ‘Oh, you sketch, bake, make chilli sauce and crochet tiny hats for cats? Amazing! You need to show the world!’”
As Rachel explains, “I think everybody has an innate need to create something. Be it through art, a hobby or whatever. For me, I am an incidental photographer. I don’t intentionally go out to take a photograph of a thing. I just happen to be there, wandering around, in my own little world and I see the details. I find the art in the object.”
