Julie Blackmon

New Work

View Series
Julie Blackmon, Loading Zone, 2009

Homegrown

View Series

Domestic Vacations

View Series

Biographical Information

(American, b. 1966) Julie Blackmon is a photographer who lives and works in Springfield, 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 popular culture and 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.

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Henry Art Gallery, and the Microsoft Art Collection. Artist monographs to date include Domestic Vacations (2008) and Homegrown (2014), both published by Radius Books.