The photographs created by Linda Costa are light painted portraits- long exposures created in complete darkness. A subject sits in stillness and silence, as Linda darts all around them with flashlights, Christmas lights, shiny tinsel, and colored tissue paper, anything that is colorful and bright. She is in constant movement, sweating, pushing her hair back, getting low on the ground to light feet, on her tippy toes to light a 6 foot subject, or the long wall behind them, or details above. The photographer lights every minute detail in the image, caressing the subjects skin with glowing warm yellow flashlights, or cool blue LED lights; she trails the energy of their aura with multicolored Christmas lights, or smoky tissue paper covered lights of every color. She pops a star shape all around them to create a mood, uses street light as a back drop in orange, explosive like an atom bomb, or she may leave them hanging centered in a cloud of black. She can draw or write freely with lights glowing all around them. All the special effects created are done in the moment, in that dark silence, dripping sweat from her brow. What keeps her going is the thrill and excitement of those moments, thriving in darkness, playing with those energies. The experiment holds her interest, becomes an obsession that brings her back for more. Spending those hours with her subject, so silent and intimate, learning their truth and capturing it is makes this particular form of photography so appealing to her. The subject sits wondering, anxiously waiting, holding their poses, or shifting body parts, all depending on the energy shared in the moment, on what their collective instincts bring. These are long minutes, between 2 and 30, and it all depends on how the mood strikes her, how detailed, how experimental she gets with the image. The camera stands on the tripod, watching patiently with aperture wide open, until finally, its eyes can shut; it is ready to share the image with the artist and her subject.
Linda is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and credits her tropical homeland for her love of people, color and movement. She is inspired by creativity in any form, and is especially fond of the surrealists Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dali. She credits the movement in her work to tropicalia music.
She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with her Husband Tim, brother Gabe and her sweet baby Lua.
More of her work is available upon request, and she is available for commissions or private sessions.

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