Julie Blackmon
Julie Blackmon (born 1966 in Springfield, Missouri) is a photographer who lives and works in Missouri. Blackmon's 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. As the oldest of nine children and mother to three, Blackmon uses her own family members and household to "move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives."
Blackmon aims to re-contextualize classical art-historical motifs by melding them with the personal experience of her own frenzied upbringing. Influenced by the masters of the Dutch Renaissance, most specifically the work of Jan Steen, Blackmon infuses her work with a distinctively Dutch sense of light, palette and use of iconography. Also influenced by the Modernist painter Balthus, Blackmon crafts busy scenes in which time stands still - leaving the viewer to anticipate what might happen in the next moment. The coupling of these two influences produces tension between subjects in an otherwise typical domestic setting in which playful behavior is infused with an ever present sense of impending disaster.
