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."

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 hosted by the Santa Fe Center for Photography and a merit award from the Society of Contemporary Photography in Kansas City, MO.

Following Mind Games, Blackmon switched to color film, and created the body of work Domestic Vacations. 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. 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.