2021

Damon Baker and Me

Damon Baker is an English Photographer, known for signing with industry powerhouse Jed Root at the age of 18 and now represented worldwide by ADB Agency at the age of 28. Baker launched his career by uprooting his whole life at the age of seventeen, dropping out of high school and ran away to New York City. 

Damon Baker is on Instagram with currently 1.1million followers, under the username damon_baker, where he shares his monochrome images as well as his thoughts, feelings and opinions. Through such a big fanbase, Baker is able to communicate and interact with many different people. “Photography to me means freedom. It allows me to go deep within my emotions and draw from that place to translate my pain and darkness into something beautiful. Without that, I’m not sure I’d ever be able to understand myself.”

Throughout Baker’s years in photography, he developed a unique artistic approach that created his own aesthetic. In my opinion, Baker has been able to capture vulnerability, authenticity and a sense of raw emotion and sexualtiy, that might be a different persona to the subject or even a hidden one. Furthermore, Baker’s use of black and white film expands the central theme of drama and intimacy, from the contrast, the raw characteristics and the portrayal of each individual that he captures. “I think it [black and white film] relates to my emotions also, and that I don't feel happy all the time nor do I feel sad all the time. I live in a state of in between, so colour doesn't feel honest to me, grayness does.”

Baker stands out as an artist to me, mostly because he has the ability to capture the unexpected but also the emotions that society are pushed to hide. This is what I wanted to show through my images of Dzenija and Lucie. Taken on a Nikon D3300 in my studio I created at home.