Marta Blue: Imagined Narratives
July 29th, 2020
Photographer Marta Blue wants you to question your personal understanding of reality. Using a darkness, a sense of nostalgia and an intimate eye, she creates scenarios in which the viewer is asked to build their own sense of narrative around the work: How did these things happen? Why are they underway? Who are we looking at?
Her pieces draw in the viewer and leave you on an aesthetically pleasing but unsure footing. Excited to learn more, we spoke with Marta to understand the emotional landscapes of her work and how cinematography has influenced her image making.
POL: First up, can you introduce our readers to who you are, your background and how you got into photography?
MB: I’m Marta Blue and I am a self-taught photographer. I graduated in communication from IED in Milan, I’ve worked as art director in agency for about seven years and in the last two years I have been trying to build a career as an artist and photographer.
The most difficult part of leaving my job in agency was figuring out how to keep myself financially, without having the slightest idea of what would happen in the future. It meant for a long period I did two jobs. But I started to realise that I could change my career path after winning the Lensculture Emerging Talent Award, 2018.
POL: Much of your work really plays on the viewers senses, giving the audience a feeling of almost synesthesia, what is your process when coming up with and creating such precise sensations? Is it difficult to walk the line between natural sensation and staged moments?
MB: I work absolutely on the senses. I do a lot of visual research, I am very curious person and I take inspiration from all types of art, especially from cinema and painting. But, in the end, for me, the creative process is all contained in emotions. I always try to recreate an intimate dimension even if entirely experimental. It's not difficult, we just need to be able to get in touch with the deepest part of our mind. I try to do my best.
“I do a lot of visual research, I am very curious person and I take inspiration from all types of art, especially from cinema and painting. But, in the end, for me, the creative process is all contained in emotions. I always try to recreate an intimate dimension even if it’s entirely experimental.”
POL: All of your work is very visually direct, your scenarios quickly recognisable, yet also feel as though part of a narrative which the viewer doesn’t always have the full details, as though part of a dream. What drew you to this surrealism or ambiguity in your narratives?
MB: My first inspiration started from cinema, which probably influenced my visual storytelling. There is always a story, because the images are based on an emotion, and with emotions there are always some memories that get brought up.
My second inspiration comes from my childhood, personally I like to compare the naive feelings of when I was a child with the visual culture of today.
POL: Do you have any art or photography influences who have informed your aesthetic?
MB: Conceptually I am very influenced by painting, and very fascinated by the Pre-Raphaelite movement currently. They did something totally visionary and at the same time romantic. By offering simple subjects, immersed in nature and with that perfect attention to detail, they managed to transform a seemingly simple story into an immense and mystical experience. History of Art is always my method of research and I constantly study.
Stylistically, however, I am very attracted to the cinematic art, David Lynch and Lars Von Trier above all.
POL: You can see an almost Lynch-ian element to your photography, a darkness under the surface, would you want to expand on this and to try narrative or art filmmaking in the future?
MB: My professional and emotional path is taking me more and more towards that road.
Although photography is currently the best medium for me, I’ve begun to perceive that it would be very stimulating to try to produce something differently. So yes, I will definitely get closer in art filmmaking in the near future.
POL: We’re really interested in your unique sense of image framing. People, in particular, are shot in close-up, and you seem to really focus in on hands, skin and faces over the full body. Can you talk us through why you’re drawn to this fragmentation?
MB: I like to focus on the details. And I like to focus on one detail at a time. It means I can communicate my intention directly without distraction. You can look at a detail, scrutinise the colours or the use of light, but without a particularly specific action in the frame, whoever looks at the photo is allowed to imagine their own story. All the images I making are designed, they are all built. But there is always a specific intention to provoke an emotional reaction.
POL: What would be your dream project, if money and time where no object?
MB: Making a movie.
POL: What are you working on now? What’s Next?
MB: In regards to personal projects, I am currently working on a new photographic series named Ultraviolet, that I hope to be able to present at some fairs and galleries next year. But I’ve learned not to make many plans because things can change course very quickly.
Also, I would like to live for a while in another city and expand my visual and artistic culture.
About Marta Blue
Marta Blue is a self-taught photographer, whose works focus on a visual narration of specific themes: seduction, illusion and death.
She works towards creating a sense of déjà vu, intimate scenes and dark images where the surreal becomes imperceptible. Her hyper-real and conceptual scenes lean towards staged photography, a type of photography that tries change the way a viewer perceives reality. Her main inspirations comes from the cinematic arts.
Her photographic series have been published by Domus, LensCulture, Elle Decoration China, Architectural Digest China, Huffington post, l’Espresso, l’Officiel and FreshEyes. Her photographs have been exhibited in festival and galleries, including PhotoFairs Shanghai, Les Rencontres de la Photographie Arles, Paris Photo, ArtBasel, Tbilisi photo festival and Brownie Art Gallery in Shanghai.
She’s currently an art director and photographer, based in Milan.