LONDON ISSUE 649 May 2017

Darren Black is a British photographer whose work hits four key notes: sex, subversion, vulgar, cool. He shoots both analogue and digital.

As a teacher at Ravensbourne University, Sheffield Hallam, LCF and a citizen of the world, he has travelled extensively to Hong Kong, Europe, Barbados, The Seychelles, Nigeria and Indonesia.

As well as other high profile clients, he has shot campaigns for Harvey Nichols and has been featured in Vogue, Elle, Dazed, Viper, Notion, Fault, 1883, L'Autre, Papercut, Disorder, typeface, TMRW, Narcissus, Solstice Singapore and Rogue.

Darren’s last exhibition, 'create/destroy/create', an experiment in collage, saw him rifle through his archive using both rudimentary and new technology to deconstruct his own archive of work and create bastard portraits that are drenched in sex and elicit more than a touch of the violence of his method. The resulting work was an arresting (and at time shocking) comment on the nature of photography and the airbrushed, retouched world we live in.

Darren's shots are raw, edgy, uncompromising, confrontational and explicit, yet they still retain a strong fashion element and always manage to grab the viewer's attention without being obvious or coarse.