Julie Blackmon: Fire
The photographic world of Julie Blackmon is based on everyday scenarios: for the first sight spontaneous, yet in the reality carefully set family „snapshots“ with their somewhat dark humour highlight the sometimes chaotic moments of our family life. At first, the pictures seem idyllic, but after taking a closer look at them, one might discover strange and potentially dangerous details, for example a kitchen knife, childrens’ toys lying around the floor, or a shark in the pool – is it a toy, or is it real?
Many of Blackmon’s photographs refer to artworks of earlier centuries. In one of them, we see black and white chequered tiles with strong perspectivic effect and an open door trough which we see into the next room: a characteristic enterieur composition of 17th century Dutch painters. Then suddenly, in the foreground of the picture we realise a mischievous little girl as she is handling her mother’s nail-polish. In the foreword to her first book (Domestic vacations, 2008) Blackmon describes that she got inspiration to her works from a 17th century Dutch painter, Jan Steen, whose paintings mingle art with domestic life.
Her photographs also make us think about the often contradictory contemporary expectations about parenthood. Art critic Laura Malonee noted, "At first glance, the work seems to depict an idealized America of the past, but upon further inspection, an unexpected darkness becomes apparent. Unsupervised children, often in dangerous situations, frolic happily about in an imperfectly perfect, sunny-macabre world ... are these images an attack on the neglectful parent or an attack on the helicopter parenting of today? Blackmon pays homage to a disappearing way of life even while she questions it."
In an interview to her latest book (Homegrown, 2014) Blackmon explained her goal is "to show the flaws, the torn lining, the parts of life that aren’t so perfect. I think that’s refreshing ... especially in this culture, where everything is so Instagram and cookie-cutter perfect."
Julie Blackmon: Down Time, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles. From July 14. to September 3. 2016.
