Up in the Air
Running Amock
"I feel like a big part of this work came out of the struggle of making sense of parenting today," says Blackmon. "It’s so radically different from how we grew up, where we kind of had our own world and our parents had another. That’s not the culture we’re in anymore—now you just structure every moment of your kids' day and have them in French."
Table Talk
This whole new world of helicopter parenting, she says, just isn't her style. In fact, much of what she tried to capture from behind the lens, as she stood back and let her kids be kids, was the idea that they should be free to discover who they are, without her hovering over.
Backyard Party
"I can’t do that [helicopter parenting]," she says. "It just doesn’t come naturally to me. I always felt like I’m this kind of spacey, disconnected mother—like some Woody Allen character. Like Diane Keaton—this well-meaning, sort of spacey, off-in-her-own-world woman—and trying to sort it all out, with kids and her own life. And the fact that your kids are the most important things in the world, but you have all these other things pulling at you—and then feeling like a failure and guilt and all of that. And, being from Springfield, Missouri, there are still a lot of traditional values. Like, I’ve been traveling almost all of September, and you still get these weird questions, like, 'How does your husband feel about that?' And other things that a man would never get asked."
Family Ties
While Blackmon says most of her photography is inspired by her own life experiences, the artistry behind her photos goes far beyond simply setting up a camera and seeing what happens.
"I don’t think there’s an artist out there, whether they’re a novelist or poet or Wes Anderson or Tim Burton or whatever, whose work isn’t autobiographical," she says. "I think we like to pin that on women, like, O_h, because you’re a mother and you’re shooting kids, that must be all you know_, rather than like, Oh, you’re an artist and you see a story here."
Room With a View
Many of Blackmon's photos can be charming and lighthearted.
Living Room Chaos
Other photos explore the dark, such as this somewhat eerie photo titled "Sharpie," which captures the destruction a toddler can cause with just a black marker and a few moments alone.
