Rainy Sign

Julia Blaukopf is intrigued by both the unfamiliar and the ordinary. For the past four years she has traveled throughout Italy, Eastern Europe, Kenya and Ghana. Much of her work centers on new ways of depicting foreign places, blurring the lines between fine art and documentary, with a focus on workers, farmers, families and other emblems that compose the everyday. As a guest in another country, Blaukopf remains an outsider looking in, but with the goal of breaking the line between foreign traveler and inquisitive visitor.

Blaukopf is serious about using her passion as an artist to raise awareness and foster mutual understanding between communities on an international level. She does this by working as a creative partner with non-profits, ethically-minded businesses, media outlets, and educational institutions.

In 2005 Blaukopf worked with a community-run tree reforestation project in Kenya. Her most recent body of work focuses on her experience working with the local organization there at the foot of Mount Kenya. Her images of intimate moments between families, strangers in the city and local workers are aimed at creating an alternative documentary. The images have exhibited in Philadelphia and New York, most notably at Nexus Foundation for the Arts; the Icebox Gallery; The Camera Club; Moore College of Art Gallery; and in solo shows at The First Person Arts Festival and Kelly Writers House. In October, 2006 she traveled to Ghana to photograph Women in Progress, a non-profit group that empowers women of the community through a sustainable business of clothing manufacturing.

Blaukopf has been honored with the First Person Arts Fellowship, the Center for Emerging Artists Fellowship, The Camera Club of New York Resident Artist Award, and the Oregon College of Art & Craft Resident Photographer’s Award. She has spoken about her international photographic work at School of Visual Arts, The Art Institute, and University of the Arts. Publications include The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Weekly, Shots Magazine, and ASMP Bulletin.