Julia Blaukopf
Artist's Statement

I am intrigued with both unfamiliar and sullen scenes. In the past four years I have traveled throughout Italy, Eastern Europe, and Kenya. Much of my work seeks to explore new ways of depicting foreign places. Just as the impressionists sought to re-mold the idea of the realists' painting into abstract images, I strive to re-define the documentary photograph. I capture the feeling of a moment, in hopes of placing my individual mark on the world through images.

Most recently I traveled to Kenya to work on a Reforestation Project. For one month I lived with a family in a close farming community at the foot of Mt. Kenya where I discovered a completely different standard of living. Presently, I am working to further develop the Kenya Project and expand on the concept of travel photography; and, at the same time, confront the role of the photographer in a foreign place. I would like to play with standard ideas of photography to produce an alternative documentation. My focus lies in the scenes of workers, farmers, families, and further emblems that compose the everyday. As a guest in another country, I remain an outsider looking in. My hope is to permeate the line between foreign traveler and inquisitive visitor, thus conveying my experiences through a visual journal.

My objective is to make the imperfect appear beautiful. Anticipated accidents develop into a means for creative solutions. A pallid sky becomes a chemical explosion. Moments of clarity stream into hazy borders. Tree branches form drooping silhouettes, veins on a white, cloudy canvas. Seen through the lens, the subject changes into a matter of extremes. Black defines dark, highlights bellow from expanses of grey, and lines dart chaotically amidst altered spaces. I anticipate the imperfect and thus manipulate dramatic, unpredictable results.