My name is David Blacker, and I’m a curious person. And I don’t mean I’m just strange; though some might think so. But I have always been curious about things. Even as a child, finding out what made something tick was as interesting as the thing itself. Over the course of my relatively lengthy career in advertising, understanding people was vital; just as it is in life itself. As advertising and m
arketing evolved ever more rapidly, understanding the consumer became even more important. In my role as an art director and creative director, I found myself constantly drawn back to the human factor, and the eternal struggle to find insight into their lives. I have also always been good at creating and telling stories, in words, and with pictures. In advertising, my storytelling brought me a Gold at Adfest in 2010, Silver and Bronze at the Abbey’s, and a mention in Lurzer’s Archive in 2011. I wrote 'A Cause Untrue', a novel, in 2005, and it was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize and went on to win the State Literary Award for Best English Novel. My photography regularly made the cover of 'Serendib', the inflight magazine of Sri Lankan Airlines, during the three years I was a contributing photographer and writer. All these stories, however, required research to strike the right chord. And I found this digging for understanding to be as interesting as the storytelling itself. This interest in people led me to move out of Creative in 2016, after 25 years in that field, and into Planning. Here, my background, as an art director, illustrator, photographer, and writer, seemed to collide with my new role as a researcher and planner. And understanding seemed to come through the lens of my camera. And I want to be part of an environment that wants this; people who understand that the key to the future is in fact understanding. I’m fascinated by the work being done in ethnographic research, and I believe it’s something I want very much to be a part of. I believe that my skill with a camera and my talent for connecting with the people I am photographing, my flair for words, and my natural sense of aesthetic, are assets in this field. If you'd like to see some of the more specifically ethnographic work I have been doing, follow this link (if not, just enjoy the photographs I post each weekday on this page): https://sonofthemorninglight.wordpress.com/about/
