Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Blurred focus
Blake Wood's photographs of the great Amy Winehouse are far from revelatory, says SUSAN DARLINGTON
Amy Winehouse performs during the Oxegen Festival 2008 at the Punchestown Racecourse, Naas, County Kildare, Ireland

Amy Winehouse
by Blake Wood
(Taschen, RRP £30)

AMY WINEHOUSE was as well-known for her image as her music when she died in 2011. In  this book Blake Wood's aim is to present “the person, not the persona” with these previously unseen photographs of a woman who is nearly unrecognisable when stripped of her rats’ nest beehive and elaborate winged eyeliner.

Aspiring photographer Wood and the Back to Black musician met and became friends in 2008, at a time when she was being hounded by the media and battling with addiction. He hung out with her in London, where they spent time doing handicrafts and making pillowcases out of old T-shirts, giving him the opportunity to catch the singer at her most unguarded and intimate moments.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CLOSE AND INTIMATE: The pewrformance / Pic: James Glossop
Theatre review / 21 July 2025
21 July 2025

SUSAN DARLINGTON highly recommends a novel setting for a play that is a rip-roaring yarn about kindness and helping people to belong

THE MUSIC OF ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS: Lana Del Ray plays Anfield
Music / 1 July 2025
1 July 2025

SUSAN DARLINGTON is charmed by an arena show that crosses Great Gatsby glamour with Jane Eyre madness

tambo
Theatre review / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

SUSAN DARLINGTON is bowled over by an outstanding play about the past, present and future of race and identity in the US

Jonathan Hanks in A Christmas Carol
Theatre Review / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic
Similar stories
(L to R) How many Aunties?, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978; M
Photography / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025

Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds

The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Consuelo Kanaga. Young Girl in Profile, 1948.
Books / 3 October 2024
3 October 2024
JOHN GREEN marvels at the rediscovery of a radical US photographer who took the black civil rights movement to her heart
(L) A resident of Burnthouse Lane estate; (R) Derek, a homel
Books / 6 August 2024
6 August 2024
JOHN GREEN appreciates two photobooks that study the single room of a homeless hostel resident, and a council estate in Exeter