When considering the trajectory of her career in photography, Julie Blackmon lets out a little sigh. Even after 20 years in the practice, she seems a little bewildered by it all.
“Oh, gosh,” said the Springfield, Missouri, native. “I mean, one thing kind of led to another.”
Though Blackmon began garnering national attention in about 2003, she has since become a celebrated art photographer. Now, her career is having something of a moment.
In September, her third book of photos, “Midwest Materials,” was published, and New York Times Style reporter Steven Kurutz wrote a laudatory profile of Blackmon and her daughter, filmmaker Stella Blackmon, two weeks ago.
The elder Blackmon also has a show up at the Robert Mann gallery in New York, and, ahead of a dedicated exhibit at Haw Contemporary in Kansas City, she has now spread out in the West Bottoms gallery space.
“We've actually never filled the whole gallery up, upstairs and downstairs, with one artist’s work,” said owner Bill Haw.
Haw Contemporary is hosting an opening reception for Blackmon’s photography on Friday.
