No Country For Old Men
Photographer Julie Blackmon’s tableaux display a world largely inhabited by children, all but innocently.
Children freely experience the natural and suburban landscape. They test new technologies, undertake exploratory journeys, create relationships unbeknownst to adults. Their psychological state seems often complex and ambiguous. Their own body language, and objects scattered in the frame, suggest at times an element of threat, or the interference of adulthood.
For this series, created in her home state of Missouri, photographer Julie Blackmon often takes inspiration from 19th century oil paintings by George Caleb Bingham, reinventing them in a modern light. In the photographs the painter’s adult characters turn into children, and the scenes acquire satirical, dark or surreal nuances.
The exhibition “Up Around the Bend” is on view at Robert Mann gallery in New York City, until October 28.
