In the 1600s, a Dutch painter named Jan Steen made his mark painting the chaos of daily life. Inspired by that "Jan Steen household," one crowded with children and homes sprinkled with the refuse of everyday life, photographer Julie Blackmon captures the domestic sphere with similar grit and vividness. Her photos, like the shot above, use lots of light contrast and contemporary props—inflatable pool rafts strewn on the lawn, Ken dolls on the floor, etc.—to depict the contemporary home, what she writes in her artist's statement is "the stress, the chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect ... the struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality." More photos, originally dug up by Flavorwire, are below.
· Lively Photos of Domestic Life Inspired by 17th-Century Dutch Paintings [Flavorwire]