Photographs: Julie Blackmon

Have you seen the wonderful images by Julie Blackmon?  I have always loved her work.

Julie Blackmon is a photographer who lives and works in Missouri.  She majored in art education and photography during college, and she began photographing seriously in her late thirties.  Her photographs are inspired by her experience of growing up in a large family, her current role as both mother and photographer, and the timelessness of family dynamics.  Many of her photographs are inspired by 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings of domestic life.  Blackmon photographs are carefully orchestrated to include members of her own family with a sense of an uncanny.  Sometimes her photographs are made up of several images via Photoshop.  Blackmon has been quoted as saying, “I know I’m very much defined as the ‘family’ photographer, but I don’t think of it quite this way,” she says.  “I’m just looking around at my everyday life and, like any artist, trying to make sense of it.”

Prior to the COVID-19, Julie Blackmon’s photographs were on display at Robert Mann Gallery/Fotografiska New York until May 2, 2020.

All photos are courtesy of Julie Blackmon.