Julie Blackmon

Treehouse

2020

Blackmon's images offer a fantastic and surreal commentary on contemporary American family life while referencing a 19th Century Flemish painting – they are intricate tableaux, combi...

“I guess my work is kind of a love letter to the past and that freedom that we had, but also an acknowledgment of the anxiety that I feel, that is real, about not being able to let o...

Reviewing the photographs of Julie Blackmon, critic Leah Ollman of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Each frame is an absorbing, meticulously orchestrated slice of ethnographic theater … that abounds with tender humor but also shrewdly subtle satire.” Blackmon is a native of Springfield, MO, and her photographs are inspired by her experience of growing up the oldest of nine children—including five sisters—in what she calls “a generic American town in the middle of the U.S.” In college, Blackmon was introduced to the work of artists Sally Mann, Diane Arbus, and Helen Levitt, and she describes herself as “obsessed” with their images. “When my three children were small,” she recalls, “we moved into an old house with a darkroom in the basement. Like any mother, I wanted to take pictures of my kids. But I didn’t want to be just the ‘mother photographer.’ I wanted my work to be more: more penetrating, more artful, more striking, more thoughtful, more a reflection of the times. “Over the next few years, I progressed from making documentary black and white photographs of my life and the lives of my sisters to creating colorful, fictitious images that offered a more fantastical look at everyday life. My work became more conceptual, as I began to realize that I was not obligated to capture “reality” exactly, but that I could work more like a painter or a filmmaker, actively shaping the images I was creating. This realization—that fiction can often capture the truth more memorably than reality—was a major shift in how I saw the world around me, and it transformed my work.” “It’s thrilling to see the most common aspects of everyday life as potential stories or themes for a photograph. It changes how you see things: suddenly, a Starbucks employee on a smoke break, or an outmoded beauty shop catering to an elderly clientele, can spark a memorable image. As Nora Ephron...

Domestic Vacations: The Dutch proverb "a Jan Steen household" originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous f...

Edition of 3 plus 2 AP

Riding the Apple Tree, 2016 - Jocelyn Lee (Colour Photography) Signed, dated and inscribed with title on reverse Archival pigment print Available in tw...

Signed on reverse Digital chromogenic print 16 x 20 inches (edition of 15) 32 x 40 inches (edition of 10) 40 x 50 inches (edition of 5) Alec Soth (born 1969) is a leading contempor...

Digital chromogenic print 16 x 20 inches (edition of 15) 32 x 40 inches (edition of 10) 40 x 50 inches (edition of 5) Alec Soth (born 1969) is a leading contemporary American photog...