Colin Blakely

Colin Blakely is known for his vernacular snapshots of everyday life. His series of photographs Somewhere in Middle America depicts the quotidian surroundings of his hometown in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "So much of photography deals with the exotic, the other," Blakely has said: "I set out to find the beauty and intrigue inherent in the familiar." His sparse black-and-white photographs of neighborhood dogs, idling teenagers, suburban homes decked out in Halloween regalia, community parks, and baseball diamonds unsentimentally depict an iconic yet quickly vanishing notion of American life.

Blakely's exhibitions include a solo show at the Colorado Center for Photographic Arts in Denver (2000) and group shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA (2007), the Pingyao International Photography Exhibition (2004), and the Albuquerque Museum of Art (2000). In 2008, he was shortlisted for Aperture's Portfolio Prize.