Behind Juli Etta – Hi, I’m Julie
“A passionate photographer.
Mother of two bright and lively kids
A lover of beautiful things and deeply sensitive to art.
Inspired both by the gentle Mediterranean way of life and the vibrant energy of big cities.”
To observe and capture who you are, the bonds that unite you and the emotions that move through you.
2006 –In 2006 I was a long term student in the humanities. Those years were filled with excitement, intellectual curiosity and engagement. One day I picked up an old family camera. That is where everything began. I started photographing endlessly. Hundreds of images accumulated, documenting my Parisian life at the time. Today they have become precious memories. I later worked in the cultural field. Alongside my work in production and communication for performing arts projects, I spent several years attending photography classes at the Beaux Arts in Paris.
2015 – A chance encounter gave me the opportunity to photograph a wedding for a day. I discovered the joy and the privilege of documenting such meaningful moments in a family’s life. Love, powerful emotions, joyful couples and extraordinary places. Very quickly I decided to turn photography into my profession, leaving behind my previous career where I no longer felt a sense of purpose. A few years later I became a mother. Since then, I have devoted a large part of my work to photographing motherhood and women.
Today I work as a full time photographer. I feel incredibly fortunate to have turned a passion that began in my youth into a profession that is both demanding and deeply fulfilling.
Motherhood
Weddings
“I have two objectives. The first is to capture the essence of a person. Beyond their outward appearance, it is about capturing their very essence, the thread of their life. Not an easy thing to grasp, is it? Especially since life is constantly changing.
The second objective is to capture the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time. I believe art is also history. Every image tells something about the era in which it was created.”
Alice Neel
Vision
My worlds
Light
The light that touches your skin when the sun rises. The light of the middle of the day that draws shadows across the ground.
The soft, warm light at the end of the afternoon.
I love the light of autumn and the light of rainy days I love the glow of Parisian street lamps and the strange light of highway rest stops in the middle of the night. I love the light of Terrence Malick’s films and the paintings of Georges de La Tour. Light is the photographer’s first and most essential tool.
Art
To recharge and to take a moment just for myself, what Virginia Woolf would call a room of one’s own, I often disappear into a museum, an exhibition, a theatre or a cinema. I collect books about art and photography. I also keep a small and growing collection of books by women artists that I gather as an endless source of inspiration.
I am fascinated by the worlds of Louise Bourgeois, Niki de Saint Phalle, Suzanne Valadon, Claire Tabouret, Annette Messager, Nan Goldin, Prune Nourry and so many others.
South of France
My second home since holiday childhood has been in the Var region. Listening to the sound of cicadas. Eating sun filled food drenched in olive oil. Sitting on terraces even in December.
Sharing glasses of rosé and enjoying the unique light of the Mediterranean all year long.
For a photographer it is a dream.
In 2019 I finally made the move and left my Parisian life behind to live in Nice all year round.
My Boys
I am the only girl in a small team of three boys.
People often say that children grow up quickly. The arrival of my second son confirmed something very clear for me. I wanted to be present for their first times. To watch them grow. To see them fight and make up again minutes later. Becoming the mother of two boys has transformed the way I move through the world, with all the ambivalence that comes with it. Time has become more precious. Priorities have shifted.
Being present. Watching them grow. Learning to slow down. This experience quietly nourishes all of my work.
Film
I collect old film cameras that I love to take with me on my little escapes. Thirty six frames. Thirty six photographs that must be carefully considered and composed. Thirty six stolen moments. I love the strong grain of inexpensive film. I love the timeless quality of Ilford and the cinematic look of CineStill 800. More recently I have also started photographing with medium format cameras. I sometimes include a few rolls of film in wedding and family sessions. The result is imperfect, unique and deeply alive.
Montmartre
Paris. Montmartre.
I lived there for more than ten years. It is where I spent long evenings at the Cave Café on rue Marcadet. Where I ate countless plates of spaghetti bolognese at Caratello. Where I solved the world’s problems with friends at Le Village. It is also where I woke up at dawn for early morning photo sessions at the Sacré Cœur. And it is there that I met the man who would become my lover. It is also there that our eldest son took his first steps, on the cobblestones of Montmartre.
Colour
I love the vibrant colours of photographers who worked with Kodachrome. I love the deep red rocks of the Estérel, the changing blues of the Mediterranean and the bright yellow of mimosa trees in winter. I also love the greys of Berlin and Paris. When I was little, my father used to say that grey was the most beautiful colour because it is born from the mixture of all the others. I love colourful interiors, explosive bouquets and clothes full of patterns and colour. For a long time I hesitated to bring this explosion of colour into my photography. Today I embrace it and actively look for it.
Love
I love photographing love. The love that is celebrated during a wedding surrounded by family and friends. The love that lives quietly inside an apartment. The love that transforms, that sometimes hesitates, that grows over time. For more than ten years I have witnessed hundreds of promises of love. Grand celebrations. Minimalist ceremonies. Wild parties. Vows whispered quietly. Love stories that sometimes lead to the arrival of new little human beings. I am not married myself. It may sound paradoxical. Perhaps because I know that love can take many forms. But I deeply believe in the gesture of commitment. And that is the gesture I photograph.
Personal research
Since the end of 2025 I have been developing a research project at the intersection of sociology and photography.
This work explores the social construction of the desire, or the absence of desire, to have children and examines motherhood among women artists.
It also takes the form of a visual archaeology based on vernacular archival images and the way motherhood has been represented through time.
It is a long term artistic project that you will soon be able to discover here and, I hope one day, in a gallery and in a book.
Published in
Photo Vogue
Vogue
New York Times
Le Figaro Japon
Coté Maison
Flow
Home Magazine
La Mariée aux Pieds Nus
Rock my Wedding
Le Blog de Madame C
Exhibitions :
Best-Of Photovogue
Lauréate du concours RATP – Martin Parr
2025 – Rencontres d’Arles autour du WS Portrait et Intimité
