I asked Carolyn Marks Blackwood About Her Photographs

Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Cloud Series #126, 40 x 40 inches

By NOAH BECKER May 1, 2025

I've been a fan of Carolyn Marks Blackwood's photographs for some time. She also works in the film world extensively and you can Google that aspect off her life. But my interaction with her has been through the art world. With a museum show in Spain, Marks Blackwood is busy...

NOAH BECKER: Your skies are filled with motion and metaphor. When you look up at the sky, what are you hoping to see—or hoping others will see through your eyes?

CAROLYN MARKS BLACKWOOD: There is a lot of emotion in nature for me- The sky is an emotional metaphor- for instance, Storms represent emotional turmoil- with other times of day and weather representing different emotions. Some skies bring me peace- and lately, some are scary and dangerous. But lately, because of climate change, the storms, which I have always loved have started to feel scary and dangerous.
 

Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Cloud Series- Emission Spectra

NB: You’ve said, “I make this work to save my own life.” Can you share how photography has served as a form of emotional survival for you?

CMB: The anxiety that I have been feeling in the world the past decade or so, and especially now, is intense. It takes a concerted effort to feel and see the beauty that surrounds me/us. One day, years ago, when I was especially anxious, I grabbed my camera after a storm, and went outside, and it was so amazingly beautiful in that moment- I said to myself “the world is still beautiful…the world is still beautiful” and that reminder- that we are alive and there is still beauty, made a difference to me. It is important to see the beauty through the darkness. It felt important for my survival. When I put that out on an IG post, the response was amazing- it was food- People needed to be reminded just as I did- and now it is my mantra- and I hope to make a book with this theme.

Wrap around the MuVim Museum in Valencia Spain- Look UP! 
 

NB: The transition from a show about water to one titled LOOK UP! was both personal and political. How do you see your art acting as a bridge between beauty and activism?

CMB: The show about water was political- it was based on a show I had at the Von Lintel gallery, called Water, Water Everywhere- The title is based on a line from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Coleridge- I grudgingly read it in 8th grade, but when I reread it a few years ago it struck a chord. The careless sailor who brings chaos and death to his fellow sailors and to himself after shooting an albatross, represents human beings and how we have treated our planet, because of climate change, people around the world are experiencing droughts and floods.

Mudslides and other things related to too little or too much water- that was the show I planned to show on the outside of the Museum in Valencia- until a horrible flood devastated the city- killing many and flooding homes and whole parts of the city. A water show seemed insensitive- I wanted to cheer on a very demoralized city after that- so I changed the show to “Look UP!” Both because of the Skies and Birds that I substituted for water, but also as a way of cheering the people on…

Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Spectral Class

NB: Your work has been described as existing “on the precipice of abstraction.” How do you balance clarity with mystery when composing a photograph?

CMB: I am a lover of painting- I like to think, that in my way, I am a painter using pixels. I just see things that way. Most of my work is something that everyone sees- but I also see it as an abstraction- it’s hard to explain. Much of my work is exactly what I saw and an abstraction at the same time. Agnes Martin saw the horizon and went to town on the horizontal line. She explains all this much better than I can. My husband says he and I can take a photograph, can take a photograph of the same thing at the same time, but mine is an abstraction. I cannot explain it - it is just the way I see.

NB: Nature, especially the sky, is a recurring character in your work. What draws you to the Hudson Valley skies, and how do they reflect your inner world?

CMB: When I first saw the works of the Hudson River School- I thought they were an exaggeration- the sunsets and skies were so operettic and grandiose- so melodramatic- extreme- but when I moved here I realized—They were not an exaggeration!!! There is something about the light here. It is magical and Mother Nature seems to be a real drama Queen in these parts- and since I feel things very deeply- they reflect my moods.

Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Bird Series... LOOK UP!

NB: You reference The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a late-blooming inspiration. What does that poem mean to you now, and how has it shaped your visual storytelling? Birds often appear as fleeting, yet powerful presences in your images.

CMB:  I am a bird lover- I have five bird clocks for heaven’s sake. Every hour five bird clocks go off- with bird calls- startling guests and perhaps the catalyst for them finding me a bit odd. In the fall, birds flock in the cornfields to glean them- before they migrate- and there is nothing like thousands of birds rising from a field, to grab my attention.

The sound of the wings- the sight of them, holds me transfixed. You need patience – I actually go around to cornfields looking for them- and they are very uncooperative but when it is a good day, there is nothing like it. The birds, like many of my subjects, are very allusive- and because this series is so difficult it is especially satisfying when I get a few good ones in a season. Standing in a field of Red Winged Blackbirds holds me in awe.

NB: In an increasingly fractured world, your message remains one of connection and hope. Do you think art has a responsibility to offer light in dark times? And how do you personally stay connected to hope?

I am looking for hope myself, and am on the trail... I'm looking for anything that feeds my soul during these dark times- and then I feel the need to share – because the sharing and connection is also what gives me hope- not being alone and isolated- feeding others souls while I feed my own. WM