A photographer & photo based installation artist currently based in New Orleans, Lousiana. TheMissingLinka is Linka A Odom, now you may ask, why @themissinglinka. Well there are a couple of reasons. The first one is because I travel a lot & friends were always asking where the heck in the world I was. The second reason is because I have a tendency to connect people…so I started going by @themissinglinka on Instagram, FB & other social media. Now a little bit more about me….

I take dreamy, investigative, surreal photographs of the world around me & the world around me changes continually. Always on the move, I’m not one to slow down easy. I prefer not to pigeonhole the images I produce into a specific category, but pressed to do so, I would say my greatest visual gift is in travel & documentary photography. Although I am also an excellent portrait & event photographer. I truly enjoy shooting cultural events, weddings, and tend to excel under deadlines, my favorite kind of day usually involves documenting off the beaten path people & places!

I began taking pictures in 1993 and fell in love with the craft immediately. Going on to earn a BFA in Photography from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, 1997 & a MA in Photojournalism & Doc. Photography from the Univ. of the Arts London College of Communication, 2012. I spent the past 5 years living in Europe, mainly based in Berlin, Germany from 2011-2016, resettling in New Orleans, Louisiana in April 2016 with my German boyfriend Axel.

I’ve journeyed in more than 40 countries and ventured in all but 7 States. I’m a wanderer, adventurer, saturator of people & places and photography is my therapy, my savior and ultimate passion. I also make one of a kind photographic light box installations that travel to events & festivals all over the world.

My work has won awards from Santa Fe Photo Workshops, APA/LA, WIPI, and Smithsonian Magazine. My documentary projects have been shortlisted for a Lucie & Burn EMF and my work with photographic light boxes and photography won a Getty Images Creative Grant in 2012.

Photography to me has always been about a lot more than good light and the right angle. For me – photography is the doorway to an experience, to a connection – while the act of taking pictures is like a dance, a journey that can be recorded under the influence of my individual eye – what an incredible thing this is.

Photography will never cease to amaze me. The fact that we can record our lives and capture a fleeting moment in a single frame is endlessly romantic & this is how I survive and thrive in this crazy beautiful world of ours.

If you would like to work with me, please get in touch! I truly enjoy working with families, shooting portraits & documenting events & I thrive when challenged!

• My first backpacking trip was in 1998, I was 25, it changed my life in the best of ways.
• I spent my first 17 years shooting with a Pentax 67 medium format camera and I love that beast.
• I considered going into heavy photojournalism, but ultimately I decided that I didn’t want to focus on the negativity in the world.
• I’m overly obsessed with dogs, so much so, that I love watching dog shows…I dog sit & foster too.
• I love singing Karaoke. I would love be a singer…in the vein of say a rock star like Bowie 😉
• I cannot wait to see my work in a real Museum. I still remember my first visit to the Dallas Museum of Art, walking in & seeing the huge Rauschenberg on the wall made a big impression.
• I went to Burning Man 9 times, beginning in 1999, the art & freedom inspired me endlessly. But ultimately I prefer to put my energy into new experiences. I really love going to places I’ve never been before.
• I get asked this a lot: Burma/Myanmar is my favorite country I’ve ever traveled in & the people are the kindest in the world. That being said, I thrive in difficult travel situations.
• I have a huge fascination with Ernest Shackleton, explorers that took ships into the great unknown inspire me endlessly.

Some of my awesome clients!