Oakland, California based photographer Debra Kay Burger, aka DK Burger, creates ethereal and provocative images that look like they are from another time. Using traditional darkroom techniques, she gives her work the qualities of foggy vintage snapshots with a touch of Odd Nerdum. Some of these techniques include dodging, burning, and masking, which look similar to digital manipulations, but everything is done by hand. With these methods, she is able to transform her subjects into floating spirits and gothic saints, based on people in her own life and other artists like Craig LaRotonda and jewelry designer Melissa Rallis. She admits that while the result can be “creepy”, her intention is to perplex her audience. In her statement, she says, “my work resumes with a group of portraits called “Divine Enigmas”. In this series of images, I’m taking my old portrait negatives and setting them to flame. Printing from the melted transparencies is both fun and very experimental, as my control is limited and the end result is always a surprise.”
