Julie Blackmon’s exhibit Line-Up is showing now at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York until October 23, 2010. Her photographs of children capture the unadulterated state of childhood in its mixture of stillness and chaos. As the oldest of nine children and mother of three, Blackmon doesn’t have to look very far for models or ideas. Photography is a family affair that involves her own children, siblings, nieces, and nephews.

Utilizing her own life as inspiration was not always the case. At one point in time, she nearly gave up her photographic pursuits for domestic harmony until a watershed moment occurred. Blackmon discovered a camera obscura in the cellar of her new house and began taking photographs again, with the picturesque suburb as her setting. Eight years later, she has won various awards and honors and her work is included in museums and collections around the nation.

The New Yorker describes her work as having “the high polish of vintage magazine illustrations and an appropriately colorful palette… its antic charm is hard to resist.” Many also note her references to Dutch Renaissance paintings with her vignettes of family life and carefully engineered compositions. Yet the images still retain a sense of spontaneity and the surreal sense of comic-timing that can only occur in reality. Be sure to visit the opening reception on September 23, 2010 from 6-8pm.

The Power of Now

High Dive

Concert

The Loading Zone

The After Party

Links:
Robert Mann Gallery
Vogue Italia
Julie Blackmon

Julie Blackmon shoots the cover of an April issue of Time magazine for the story, “Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?” The article describes experiments conducted across several cities in America in which groups of children are offered money as incentives for performing and behaving well in school. The results are “fascinating and surprising… kids, like grownups, are not puppets.”

The Time magazine cover was a seamless family affair. In lieu of a photo studio, Blackmon cleared out her dining room and set up a giant roll of white paper and lights. Sister Rosie Winstead was the assistant and niece Mabel Johnson modeled. Blackmon withdrew $1,000.00 in one dollar bills from the bank while Winstead rounded up old school desks and additional props from flea markets. After the shoot, Blackmon returned the money to the bank ($32 were missing) and the makeshift studio was transformed back into a dining room, all in time to set the table for Easter.

38,000 visitors are expected at Paris Photo, “the world’s leading event for photography.” Photographers from 23 countries will be represented across 89 galleries. Among the 500 artists that are showing at Paris Photo, Julie Blackmon is among the 20 short-listed works exhibited during the fair for the BMW Paris Photo Prize. The theme of the exhibit is “When was the last time you experienced something for the first time?”. Julie Blackmon’s artist statement for her photograph “Baby Toss”:

“This photograph expressed the universal primary experience of becoming aware of your own body in a new way. When being released from trusted hands into the unknown, you are as left weightless, gleeful, fearful, and euphoric.”

Paris Photo runs from Novembr 19-22, 2009 at Carrousel Du Louvre.