{{Short description|American photographer (born 1966)}} {{COI |date=July 2024}} '''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.<ref name="blackmon">Blackmon, Julie. [http://www.julieblackmon.com/Text_page.cfm?pID=181 Artist Statement (color work)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024194715/http://www.julieblackmon.com/Text_page.cfm?pID=181 |date=2019-10-24 }}. Accessed on Oct. 15, 2010</ref> 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."<ref name="blackmon" />
==Work== Blackmon studied art at Missouri State University where she became interested in photography and the work of photographers such as Sally Mann and Diane Arbus.
Drawing extensively on her personal experiences and relationships, Blackmon adds an element of humor and fantasy to create works that touch on both the everyday and the fictitious.<ref>Nordström, Alison. “Interview with Julie Blackmon” in Domestic Vacations. (Santa Fe, N.M.: Radius Books, 2008).</ref>
''Mind Games'', Blackmon’s first major body of work, explores childhood play through a series of black and white images. In 2004, the series won her an honorable mention in Project Competition<ref group="n">Project Competition's web page is [http://visitcenter.org/index.php/center/program_page/project_competition/ here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100929022200/http://visitcenter.org/index.php/center/program_page/project_competition/ |date=2010-09-29 }}.</ref> hosted by the Santa Fe Center for Photography and a merit award from the Society of Contemporary Photography in Kansas City, MO.<ref>Greene, Kendra. [http://www.mocp.org/collections/mpp/blackmon_julie.php "Julie Blackmon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616005630/http://www.mocp.org/collections/mpp/blackmon_julie.php |date=2012-06-16 }} for the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.</ref>
Following ''Mind Games'', Blackmon switched to color film, and created the body of work ''Domestic Vacations.''<ref>Nordström, "Interview with Julie Blackmon"</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Melissa |last=Kuntz |title= KIDS Photography Exhibition on Display at the Bell Gallery |url=https://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2007/10/kids |publisher=Brown University News |date=October 2007 |accessdate=2008-06-04 }}</ref> Its photographs of family life appear at once disorderly and playful and at times impossible. Blackmon says that the images in her series ''Domestic Vacations'' recall the tableaux of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painters, notably the chaotic familial scenes of Jan Steen.<ref name="blackmon" /> Tailored environments and carefully placed props are often a feature of her work.
Blackmon’s most recent monograph of work, ''Homegrown'', picks up where ''Domestic Vacations'' left off. Following the same formula developed in ''Domestic Vacations, Homegrown'' demonstrates a further refinement of technique in regards to composition and structure. Where the previous collection was set primarily within the confines of the home, ''Homegrown'' looks to those places outside the house that are common in one’s upbringing. The local market, beauty salon and fields behind the house are equally familiar to us and shape our childhood just as much as our homes do. It is these locales that become the backdrop for disjointed scenes; in ''Picnic'' three babies sit in a pram overlooking the layout for a picnic while not far off men are shooting birds with shotguns.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}
==Publications== Blackmon’s photographs have appeared in ''Time, The New Yorker'', and ''Oxford American''. In 2008, a monograph of Blackmon's work was published as ''Domestic Vacations.'' In 2014, her second monograph, ''Homegrown'', was published. In 2015, ''Homegrown'' won the National Silver at the Independent Publisher Book Awards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://radiusbooks.org/homegrown-wins-ippy-award/|title='Homegrown' Wins Ippy Award|last=|first=|date=May 7, 2015|website=Radius Books|access-date=}}</ref> Blackmon has most recently been featured in an article by the ''New York Times'', featuring her work as well as her story of her career and her ties with her hometown of Springfield, Missouri.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/style/julie-blackmon-springfield-missouri.html|title= Springfield, Missouri, Is Their Muse |last=|first=|date=September 21, 2022|website=The New York Times|access-date=}}</ref>
==Notes== <references group="n" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.julieblackmon.com Julie Blackmon's website] *[https://hawcontemporary.com/artist/julie-blackmon Julie Blackmon work available at Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO] *[https://www.julie-blackmon.com/ Julie Blackmon - METAVERSE (dedicated website)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130706165749/http://www.ggibsongallery.com/artists/blackmon/index.html G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA] *[https://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2007/10/kids KIDS, The David Winton Bell Gallery, press release] *[http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-06/art/julie-blackmon-at-robert-mann-nancy-holt-at-columbia-and-americanana-at-hunter/ Review of Julie Blackmon at Robert Mann Gallery by Robert Shuster, Oct. 6, 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208023008/http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-06/art/julie-blackmon-at-robert-mann-nancy-holt-at-columbia-and-americanana-at-hunter/ |date=2011-02-08 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackmon, Julie}} Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:People from Springfield, Missouri Category:Photographers from Missouri Category:21st-century American women photographers Category:21st-century American photographers Category:Missouri State University alumni