Linda Blacker is a fine art photographer, born in Chelmsford, UK. Her unique style intertwines fantasy and reality to create eye catching and colourful photographs. She creates stories within her work with her models being basically unidentifiable as they are usually covered head-to-toe in body paint. Blacker is the creative director, stylist and retoucher on all of her images. Her work is an art form and almost like a film set with makeup artists, different props and with her directing everything herself.

Linda Blacker website: http://lindablackeraluk.co.uk

I like Blacker’s style as it is unique and really intrigues me. Her work makes me want to look at more of her images and want to read more about her as a photographer. I found Blacker through YouTubers who often pose in her photographs. Blacker has made the connection with online stars and has brought them into the photographic world, being able to expand her spectatorship through these stars. Her work is really interesting to look at and it all seems to be perfectly planned out. I like that most of the time her models are completely covered in paint as it almost acts like a mask and doesn’t share the identity of the model to the spectator. I find this style different and really does embody fine art photography.

This is one of my favourite photographs that Blacker has created. I find it one of the most interesting how there are just different coloured geometric shapes painted onto a mans face and shoulders with the rest of his body not even being there. It looks like a painting as there is not bottom of the mans body, it just stops like a painting might look. I find this interesting as it does really look like  a painting but then you are drawn to the eyes of the subject and realise that it is a real person. If I’m honest I don’t really get Blacker’s work or any meaning that her images may have behind them but I quite like that as the images are so captivating and just interesting to look at that it takes a while to be able to take it all in and even then you don’t really need to generate meaning from that. I like the use of the mustard coloured background as it is better than just always having a white background and makes the image stand out more. I feel that the mustard background also compliments the colours painted on the mans body as they all work well together and some of the mustard on the mans body blends in with that of the background. I find that the clothing the subject is wearing, hat and shirt, also adds another layer to the image and makes me more interested in trying to figure out what is going on.

What is going on in this image? I chose this because this image genuinely doesn’t make much sense to me but I guess I don’t mind that as it is fun to look at. I like that the paint brushes are standing up on their own, it adds a sense of surrealism to them as if they can paint themselves. I do have an idea of what this image could possibly be about. I think that maybe the subject is controlling the paint brushes with his mind but then again I feel that the paint brushes are more likely to be controlling him as they have painted all over him and he is just staring into the camera and taking it. I like the theme of having mostly everything blue and that the subject also has blue eyes. I find this image really odd but something about it makes it interesting. I don’t really know how to feel about Blacker’s work as I like how different and unique it is but part of me doesn’t really find parts of her work interesting. The more I look at this particular image the less I like it, which is a shame as I find her work really artistic and creative. I do think that she makes great images but possibly ones that I have no interest in as I do prefer tableau photography and surrealism photography.

This image reminds me of one that Christopher McKenney has created with the reflection in the water but it has been done in a completely different way. Her fine art really shows through her images as they aren’t so much conceptual but more artistic. Her images are like paintings and I don’t really tend to generate much meaning behind any of them but this interests me. I like the use of geometric shapes in Blacker’s images, especially the one above. I think that this image is one of her more simple images as it just has a woman wearing, not too much paint staring into the camera. Something that I realised is that on one half of the image the subject has a neutral facial expression while on the flip side she has more face paint on that looks like black tears rolling down her eyes. This image is interesting to look at and looks like a direct reflection, with the only difference being that the reflection at the bottom of the image is supposed to be sadder than the top half of the image.