Linda Blacker is a fantasy artist based in the UK. Well known for her 'YouTuber Fairytales' series, in which she transforms popular content creators on the video platform 'YouTube' into fantastical and mythical beings, most often alongside a written story which gives the images context and a deeper meaning. She also has many other creative projects that all surround this idea of the fantasy and the subconscious.
I feel that looking at her work will enable me to broaden my mind to the possibilities of where my project could go. I already know this work inspires me greatly, and I feel that it will influence my work regardless, and so it's important to know why and how. For example, Blacker uses her work as a way to speak about beauty standards and what is our visual 'normal' - they act as a counter-argument to what we typically see as beautiful. This is one way that my work could take me.
Being largely social media based, her written stories don't appear on her website, but her instagram. They can be personal to her, completely made up or based off an already existing fairytale. The way she writes enhances this feeling of otherworldliness.
This image is called 'The Bloody Heart of the White Rabbit', and was shared on Instagram alongside the story that is the basis of the concept for this piece;
"The White Rabbit sits in silence.
Shadows dance around her as the trees above sway under the moonlight.
Drip, drip, drip.
A dark crimson liquid splatters against the white of her gown.
After a pause, the White Rabbit holds her long and spindly fingers up to the moonlight. Encompassed within them is a glistening, blood soaked, beating heart.
With a sigh, she lowers the organ and holds it to her chest. ‘Why oh why, does my heart still beat? Ripped from my chest so long ago, yet I still live to wonder this White Forest, with no blood in my body and no heart beneath my breast.’ With that she stands, cradling her beaten heart within her palms she places it within the hollow of a nearby tree.
Now she will wonder, travelling the forest in all its entirety, until dawn breaks and the sun rises from the east.
Under the moonlight, she tiptoes between the shadows, searching for the man who ripped the beating heart from her chest, leaving her to live for all eternity as nothing but an empty shell."
The image is visually very strong, with a lot of contrast (black and whites with red), interesting shapes (the spiral of her dress) and textures (the woods in comparison to her silky dress). Because of the mostly monotone colours the red of the blood stand out against the rest of the photograph, making it the main focus as our eye is drawn towards it. The woman as the rabbit herself looks incredibly ethereal and in collaboration with the background we can tell that this isn't supposed to be seen as in our world - but another. A world where rabbits can talk and science has no affect on things. An imaginary world, where the mind decides the laws, the stories and the people. This is only enhanced by the caption where you are told the subject's story; things that just cannot happen in real life are spoken about and displayed visually to you - it's a form of escapism. Because of this escapism, despite the rather gory story I feel a longing for this world, I crave the imaginary. It makes me want to explore more despite knowing there is no more. There is still mystery around this image and the world her character lives in because this; her caption is almost a teaser to a fantasy land.
The positioning of the model is very important in this image; the way her dress almost wraps around her and revolves around her clarifies the importance of this white rabbit character, highlighting her and making her the central part to the image. I personally don't think that having the dress relaxed and smooth would have such an affect as having it spiral.
When we think of the white rabbit, it's likely we think of Alice in Wonderland; a Victorian fantasy novel where Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole, spiralling down until she lands in Wonderland. The Alice in Wonderland aspect of this gives it a sense of familiarity with a viewer, but also gives an impression of timelessness; Alice's story is arguably just as much relevant today in contemporary re-writes, Disney films and merchandise, as it was in the Victorian times. The fluid twist in her dress could represent this falling notion that Alice goes through, or even the spiralling of the mind. It gives a much more havoc and unsettled feeling to the image as a whole; more motion and life. This is complimented by the hair of the character, which is messy, shaken and caught up in the trees, almost awakening the image. It's the hair that actually highlights the presence of the trees within the frame, which then guides the eye upwards to the fantastical looking trees and the petals that fall from them, almost like a flurry of snow.
The concept itself feels like a romance or breakup that has been turned into a dark fantasy; the ripped heart that still beats could be a synonym for a broken heart after a break up. If this is the case, she's managed to turn something rather sad but also photographically cliche into a unique piece of work that is both beautiful and tragic.
We are then aware of her location, which matches with her story and manages to bring more detail about this other, fantastical world. The woods at night, however, have rather negative connotations due to feeling as if anything can be hiding within the trees, but I feel that the brightness of the rabbit character overrides this negative feeling, leaving only behind the sense of mystery.
The distance that this white rabbit figure is presented to as at makes me as a viewer feel like I have simply wondered and come across this scene, rather than being up close an intimate. I feel a separation of me and her which in a sense grants me permission to look at her; spying almost. Her ignorance of me as the viewer enhances this and I feel like I have permission to not just look but inspect the image. If the subject was looking into the camera and therefore at me, I would feel more confronted as a connection has been made.
Blacker has effectively drawn in a viewer into a delicate yet shocking moment and portrayed it in a very glamorous way.
With a more critical view, the editing job of the subject into the dark woodland background seems odd. The perspectives are different and her dress seems to go over the trees, almost as if she's been cut and pasted in. Whether this affects the experience of a viewer will depend on them, but for me it just doesn't sit quite right. It could be argued however, that it doesn't have to make sense or look 'perfect' because we're being shown a made up world, with made up laws of physics. Nothing is real.
This image is a play on the classic Snow White story. However, instead of using a stereotypical 'beauty' such as how Disney modelled their first ever Disney princess, Blacker has chosen to use a model with a physical facial deformity to fight this stereotype. If we look at Disney's official list of princesses, there are none who show a physical deformity of any kind (although their back stories can suggest mental issues such as Stockholm syndrome within Belle from Beauty and the Beast);
While they do show physical differences (such as race), there are also many similarities; slim figures with even smaller waists and large eyes. In fact, when Moana was released in 2016 Disney were praised for creating a 'princess' with a figure that showed muscle and strength, which can be seen below in comparison to Snow White, their first princess (Read more here 1 , 2 , 3 )
Apart from this very recent change in Disney's princesses body types, there has been very little apart from race to make them stand out aesthetically. This is where Blacker's work comes in, for she aims to shatter these moulds and show that anybody can be a princess. This one image I've chosen is just one of many.
The model Blacker has chosen is a 15 year old YouTuber and influencer called Nikki Lilly. Lilly suffers from a disease called Arteriovenous Malformation which affects the connections between arteries and veins, getting diagnosed at just the age of 6. I think this is absolutely key to the image as it questions what is normal for us, and what is beautiful. This is one route that my own project could take, as a part of a much larger body-positive movement.
The image by Blacker comes alongside a self written story;
"The soft crunch of small hooves atop blades of grass met the ears of the young princess, sat in the shade of a tall tree, deep within the heart of a rich woodlands.
Her skin is as white as snow, her hair as black as ebony and lips as red as blood.
Her name, is Snow White.
Every day she dances and sings throughout the forest, alongside her truest of friends, the animals of the woods.
Every day her heart is filled with such joy, grateful for the blessings of Mother Nature.
But on this day, something was different... There is a whisper on the breeze, the animals seem more alert... wary.
As little Snow White hums to the tune of a nearby sparrow's melody, a cloaked figure steps out of a clearing before her.
Beneath the cloak a hand appears, gripping a shiny red apple. The stranger spoke in an aged voice... 'Hello my dear...'"
This story plays along with the classic story of snow white that we all know, to the extent that we know what's happening next in the story after she stops writing; she takes a bite and falls into a deep sleep ready for her true love to wake her up. The story, first published by Brothers Grimm in 1812 and first made into a film in 1937, would be seen as rather outdated if it was produced now due to the nature of Snow only being able to be saved by a man. It's everything that feminism isn't and we've seen a move away from this in Disney's most current princess films such as Brave, Frozen and Moana, which instead have a focus on family.
Despite this, Snow White has become an iconic princess to the western society and even paved a new path for the film industry. The story as well as the character and appearance of Snow White has become incredibly well known by most westerners, which makes the photograph by Blacker easy to understand and admire.
The subject sits in the woodlands; the setting for the majority of the Disney film in which the image is based upon, clothed in a blue dress, red headband and yellow shoes; so while Blacker doesn't use the 1937 outfit, she uses the same colours to further indicate the princess' identity. Perhaps the element that gives this away most, besides the caption and title, would be the apple sitting within her hand. combined with the location and the costume, we as the viewer become fully aware of the story being told. She's about to eat the apple and fall into her deep slumber.
The animals around her (while perhaps obviously edited) again correlate with elements from the film where the princess is friends with the wildlife. This imagery not only strengthens our familiarity with the story but also creates a fantastical and beautiful world for us to look into; as it's unlikely the view is common among viewers.
They also act as her only company within the frame, for the woods otherwise appear isolating; an undesired position for her upcoming fate, and yet the quiet atmosphere offers a sense of peace to the viewer.
Like the previous image, the model sits in the centre of the frame, only this time she looks into the camera and therefore at the viewer. A look at the viewer has the capacity to be confronting, however, she seems rather passive and accepting of the viewer's presence. Her look shows no sign of sternness and is perhaps a foreshadowing of her future as being immobilised and entirely passive after biting the poisonous apple.
While the aesthetics of the image are of course important, as with any fantasy portraiture, I think the main element from this shoot, and this whole collection, is that Blacker is using women who are no stereotypical Disney princess type, and empowering them and those that relate to them by showing that they can also take on these roles.
Overall, Blacker has a range of concepts she shoots with, including dark fantasy and re-imagining classic stories many know and love. Personally, I am a large fan of her work, especially the way she tell the story through both text and imagery. Artistically, Blacker is sure to have an influence on my work, whether it be aesthetically or conceptually I cannot tell, but my exposure and admiration towards her is highly likely to seep in into my own work. I personally prefer when she creates a concept from her own imagination and I feel that this is what i'd prefer to do for my own work, however like Blacker's 'White Rabbit', i'm sure my work will be influenced by the society and culture I have grown up in and adjusted to suit my work.
I feel that looking at her work will enable me to broaden my mind to the possibilities of where my project could go. I already know this work inspires me greatly, and I feel that it will influence my work regardless, and so it's important to know why and how. For example, Blacker uses her work as a way to speak about beauty standards and what is our visual 'normal' - they act as a counter-argument to what we typically see as beautiful. This is one way that my work could take me.
Being largely social media based, her written stories don't appear on her website, but her instagram. They can be personal to her, completely made up or based off an already existing fairytale. The way she writes enhances this feeling of otherworldliness.
This image is called 'The Bloody Heart of the White Rabbit', and was shared on Instagram alongside the story that is the basis of the concept for this piece;
"The White Rabbit sits in silence.
Shadows dance around her as the trees above sway under the moonlight.
Drip, drip, drip.
A dark crimson liquid splatters against the white of her gown.
After a pause, the White Rabbit holds her long and spindly fingers up to the moonlight. Encompassed within them is a glistening, blood soaked, beating heart.
With a sigh, she lowers the organ and holds it to her chest. ‘Why oh why, does my heart still beat? Ripped from my chest so long ago, yet I still live to wonder this White Forest, with no blood in my body and no heart beneath my breast.’ With that she stands, cradling her beaten heart within her palms she places it within the hollow of a nearby tree.
Now she will wonder, travelling the forest in all its entirety, until dawn breaks and the sun rises from the east.
Under the moonlight, she tiptoes between the shadows, searching for the man who ripped the beating heart from her chest, leaving her to live for all eternity as nothing but an empty shell."
The image is visually very strong, with a lot of contrast (black and whites with red), interesting shapes (the spiral of her dress) and textures (the woods in comparison to her silky dress). Because of the mostly monotone colours the red of the blood stand out against the rest of the photograph, making it the main focus as our eye is drawn towards it. The woman as the rabbit herself looks incredibly ethereal and in collaboration with the background we can tell that this isn't supposed to be seen as in our world - but another. A world where rabbits can talk and science has no affect on things. An imaginary world, where the mind decides the laws, the stories and the people. This is only enhanced by the caption where you are told the subject's story; things that just cannot happen in real life are spoken about and displayed visually to you - it's a form of escapism. Because of this escapism, despite the rather gory story I feel a longing for this world, I crave the imaginary. It makes me want to explore more despite knowing there is no more. There is still mystery around this image and the world her character lives in because this; her caption is almost a teaser to a fantasy land.
The positioning of the model is very important in this image; the way her dress almost wraps around her and revolves around her clarifies the importance of this white rabbit character, highlighting her and making her the central part to the image. I personally don't think that having the dress relaxed and smooth would have such an affect as having it spiral.
When we think of the white rabbit, it's likely we think of Alice in Wonderland; a Victorian fantasy novel where Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole, spiralling down until she lands in Wonderland. The Alice in Wonderland aspect of this gives it a sense of familiarity with a viewer, but also gives an impression of timelessness; Alice's story is arguably just as much relevant today in contemporary re-writes, Disney films and merchandise, as it was in the Victorian times. The fluid twist in her dress could represent this falling notion that Alice goes through, or even the spiralling of the mind. It gives a much more havoc and unsettled feeling to the image as a whole; more motion and life. This is complimented by the hair of the character, which is messy, shaken and caught up in the trees, almost awakening the image. It's the hair that actually highlights the presence of the trees within the frame, which then guides the eye upwards to the fantastical looking trees and the petals that fall from them, almost like a flurry of snow.
The concept itself feels like a romance or breakup that has been turned into a dark fantasy; the ripped heart that still beats could be a synonym for a broken heart after a break up. If this is the case, she's managed to turn something rather sad but also photographically cliche into a unique piece of work that is both beautiful and tragic.
We are then aware of her location, which matches with her story and manages to bring more detail about this other, fantastical world. The woods at night, however, have rather negative connotations due to feeling as if anything can be hiding within the trees, but I feel that the brightness of the rabbit character overrides this negative feeling, leaving only behind the sense of mystery.
The distance that this white rabbit figure is presented to as at makes me as a viewer feel like I have simply wondered and come across this scene, rather than being up close an intimate. I feel a separation of me and her which in a sense grants me permission to look at her; spying almost. Her ignorance of me as the viewer enhances this and I feel like I have permission to not just look but inspect the image. If the subject was looking into the camera and therefore at me, I would feel more confronted as a connection has been made.
Blacker has effectively drawn in a viewer into a delicate yet shocking moment and portrayed it in a very glamorous way.
With a more critical view, the editing job of the subject into the dark woodland background seems odd. The perspectives are different and her dress seems to go over the trees, almost as if she's been cut and pasted in. Whether this affects the experience of a viewer will depend on them, but for me it just doesn't sit quite right. It could be argued however, that it doesn't have to make sense or look 'perfect' because we're being shown a made up world, with made up laws of physics. Nothing is real.
This image is a play on the classic Snow White story. However, instead of using a stereotypical 'beauty' such as how Disney modelled their first ever Disney princess, Blacker has chosen to use a model with a physical facial deformity to fight this stereotype. If we look at Disney's official list of princesses, there are none who show a physical deformity of any kind (although their back stories can suggest mental issues such as Stockholm syndrome within Belle from Beauty and the Beast);
While they do show physical differences (such as race), there are also many similarities; slim figures with even smaller waists and large eyes. In fact, when Moana was released in 2016 Disney were praised for creating a 'princess' with a figure that showed muscle and strength, which can be seen below in comparison to Snow White, their first princess (Read more here 1 , 2 , 3 )
Apart from this very recent change in Disney's princesses body types, there has been very little apart from race to make them stand out aesthetically. This is where Blacker's work comes in, for she aims to shatter these moulds and show that anybody can be a princess. This one image I've chosen is just one of many.
The model Blacker has chosen is a 15 year old YouTuber and influencer called Nikki Lilly. Lilly suffers from a disease called Arteriovenous Malformation which affects the connections between arteries and veins, getting diagnosed at just the age of 6. I think this is absolutely key to the image as it questions what is normal for us, and what is beautiful. This is one route that my own project could take, as a part of a much larger body-positive movement.
The image by Blacker comes alongside a self written story;
"The soft crunch of small hooves atop blades of grass met the ears of the young princess, sat in the shade of a tall tree, deep within the heart of a rich woodlands.
Her skin is as white as snow, her hair as black as ebony and lips as red as blood.
Her name, is Snow White.
Every day she dances and sings throughout the forest, alongside her truest of friends, the animals of the woods.
Every day her heart is filled with such joy, grateful for the blessings of Mother Nature.
But on this day, something was different... There is a whisper on the breeze, the animals seem more alert... wary.
As little Snow White hums to the tune of a nearby sparrow's melody, a cloaked figure steps out of a clearing before her.
Beneath the cloak a hand appears, gripping a shiny red apple. The stranger spoke in an aged voice... 'Hello my dear...'"
This story plays along with the classic story of snow white that we all know, to the extent that we know what's happening next in the story after she stops writing; she takes a bite and falls into a deep sleep ready for her true love to wake her up. The story, first published by Brothers Grimm in 1812 and first made into a film in 1937, would be seen as rather outdated if it was produced now due to the nature of Snow only being able to be saved by a man. It's everything that feminism isn't and we've seen a move away from this in Disney's most current princess films such as Brave, Frozen and Moana, which instead have a focus on family.
Despite this, Snow White has become an iconic princess to the western society and even paved a new path for the film industry. The story as well as the character and appearance of Snow White has become incredibly well known by most westerners, which makes the photograph by Blacker easy to understand and admire.
The subject sits in the woodlands; the setting for the majority of the Disney film in which the image is based upon, clothed in a blue dress, red headband and yellow shoes; so while Blacker doesn't use the 1937 outfit, she uses the same colours to further indicate the princess' identity. Perhaps the element that gives this away most, besides the caption and title, would be the apple sitting within her hand. combined with the location and the costume, we as the viewer become fully aware of the story being told. She's about to eat the apple and fall into her deep slumber.
The animals around her (while perhaps obviously edited) again correlate with elements from the film where the princess is friends with the wildlife. This imagery not only strengthens our familiarity with the story but also creates a fantastical and beautiful world for us to look into; as it's unlikely the view is common among viewers.
They also act as her only company within the frame, for the woods otherwise appear isolating; an undesired position for her upcoming fate, and yet the quiet atmosphere offers a sense of peace to the viewer.
Like the previous image, the model sits in the centre of the frame, only this time she looks into the camera and therefore at the viewer. A look at the viewer has the capacity to be confronting, however, she seems rather passive and accepting of the viewer's presence. Her look shows no sign of sternness and is perhaps a foreshadowing of her future as being immobilised and entirely passive after biting the poisonous apple.
While the aesthetics of the image are of course important, as with any fantasy portraiture, I think the main element from this shoot, and this whole collection, is that Blacker is using women who are no stereotypical Disney princess type, and empowering them and those that relate to them by showing that they can also take on these roles.
Overall, Blacker has a range of concepts she shoots with, including dark fantasy and re-imagining classic stories many know and love. Personally, I am a large fan of her work, especially the way she tell the story through both text and imagery. Artistically, Blacker is sure to have an influence on my work, whether it be aesthetically or conceptually I cannot tell, but my exposure and admiration towards her is highly likely to seep in into my own work. I personally prefer when she creates a concept from her own imagination and I feel that this is what i'd prefer to do for my own work, however like Blacker's 'White Rabbit', i'm sure my work will be influenced by the society and culture I have grown up in and adjusted to suit my work.
Linda Blacker
Reviewed by BethCorbett
on
October 26, 2019
Rating:
Reviewed by BethCorbett
on
October 26, 2019
Rating:
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