They make a way. - Maryland Institute College of Art

Derek Blanks ’00 GENERAL FINE ARTS
Owner, Derek Blanks Photography / Atlanta, GA
“Every day I come to work it’s like a day of play! I absolutely
love what I do, so it’s just not like work to me. I like the fact
that I am making an imprint in history. I am able to make
an important difference in pop culture.”
Reading Derek Blanks’ client list aloud is like
calling out the names on the Hollywood red carpet.
They include Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe
winner Jennifer Hudson, multi-platinum-selling
recording artists Usher, Brandy, Ludacris, T.I.,
and Keisha Cole, entertainment icon Beyonce, and
fellow Destiny’s child alumna Kelly Rowland. He
worked with fashion icon and entertainer
Nicki Minaj for her Ebony cover shot and six-page
photo spread. It’s not the client list that’s breathtaking,
however. Instead, it is Blank’s one-of-a-kind
way of capturing his subjects that makes him the
photographer with whom the most well-known
celebrities line up to work. His “Alter-ego” series
juxtaposes dual images of celebrities with their
naughtier hidden personas, which appear so real
that the viewer has to do a double take to grasp
the full scope of each picture. Each image in the
series seems to be more spectacular than the
last. It’s a theme that runs throughout his work,
a clear determination to create art no one has
ever envisioned.
Blanks made it from Jackson, Mississippi,
to MICA, where he studied fine arts and
commercial illustration, graduating magna cum
laude. In addition to the photography for which
he is known, he still works as an illustrator, with
work featured in the children’s book Up the Learning
Tree, and in Communications Art magazine and
America magazine. MICA, Blanks says, enhanced
his talents and improved the skill set he would
use throughout his career. He also credits the College
with helping him develop his organizational and
business skills.
BLANKS IS NOT RESTING ON THE ACCLAIM
HIS LARGER-THAN-LIFE IMAGES HAVE
BROUGHT HIM. HE HAS ASSEMBLED A TEAM
OF BUSINESS ASSOCIATES AND OTHER
ARTISTS THAT HE LEADS IN CARRYING OUT
HIS CREATIVE VISION. THE ATLANTA-BASED
PHOTOGRAPHER IS LOOKING FORWARD TO
BUILDING HIS BRAND AND DIVERSIFYING
HIS CLIENTELE TO AN EVEN LARGER DEGREE.
ENTERPRISE
MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART 2012 ANNUAL REPORT
37