Julie Blackmon grew up in Springfield, Mo., a city of 165,000 people in the southern part of the state, and went to college there. She got married in Springfield and raised three children there. For much of that time, her home city struck her as “this generic town with a generic name, in the middle of the country, in the middle of nowhere,” she said. And then, about 20 years ago, she picked up a camera.
“All of a sudden I’m driving by Starbucks, and the guy that served me coffee every day is outside smoking a cigarette,” said Ms. Blackmon, whose third book of photographs, “Midwest Materials,” was published this month. “I remember thinking, ‘He’s got the most beautiful cheekbones when he inhales.’ He looked right out of a Balthus painting.”
Since taking a picture of the Starbucks employee, Ms. Blackmon, 56, has become a celebrated art photographer. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York magazine and The Oxford American. Reese Witherspoon and Elton John are among her collectors. She has a show up at the Robert Mann gallery in Manhattan, and another will open at Haw Contemporary in Kansas City, Mo., in October.
