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Trash the Dress and Live Your Life:
Introducing Julia Bailey
By Susi Lawson
"I used to think my intense empathy was a curse, but in photography, it has become
my gift." --Julia Bailey
"I always had this desire to create and express myself," says Julia Bailey. "It was actually
painful to watch a play or see a performance as I always felt compelled to run up on stage and
belt out a song, dance, act--anything!" Although young Julia was sure she wanted to do something
creative, she was not sure where her place was in the world, and with no encouragement or
guidance she often felt lost. In her teen years, Julia rebelled, experimenting with drugs and
shaving her head punk rock style; it seemed as if her life was directionless. But Julia had
an epiphany during a boring family reunion in Texas that provided the much-needed direction
for her; she picked up her mother's 35mm camera and started shooting away. Julia's mother
had never before offered any words of encouragement, but even she could not contain her
excitement when she picked up the prints and exclaimed, "My God Julia, this is what you need
to be! You need to be a photographer!" Julia says she always knew she had it--an appreciation
for the beauty of the world around her--and that her soul yearned to express and share it
with others.
At 20, Julia received her very own 35mm camera--a dream for many years--as a Christmas
present. With this new camera her life suddenly had direction and meaning. She immediately
began experimenting with edgy portraits, using herself as a model for fine art,
black-and-white nudes and crawling into abandoned warehouses to capture portraits near
toilets and dirty concrete walls. Julia felt the passion of photography course through
her veins and could hear her mother's declaration resound through her heart: "This is what
you need to be!" Her inner voice answered back: "This is who I am." She entertained thoughts
of going to college but after finding that there was a requirement of two years of academic
classes before she would ever see a darkroom, she knew her anxious spirit would never have
the patience for that. The time was now.
As luck would have it, her boyfriend convinced her to move with him to a small Texas town
and advised her to go to the local paper and ask if they needed a photographer. That is
exactly what she did, and after the editor viewed Julia's innovative work, she was hired
on the spot. She jokes that she was not sure if she was hired for her looks or her talent,
but either way, she was grateful for the job. Her first day on the job she covered a
pedestrian death on the highway. The tragedy hit her right in the gut, but she continued to
stay on as the local paper's photographer for the darkroom experience, and since she was the
lone photographer, the job gave her the solitude that she craved. "I was only receiving
$3.15 an hour, but I was learning more and more about photography and gaining work
experience," says Julia. "It was a real blessing!"
Julia worked at the local newspaper for a year, started dating a new guy and began enjoying
the Texas nightlife. "In a small town," Julia explains, "the news photographer is a bit of
a celebrity, so there started to be a fair share of gossip about my 'behavior' and my boss
gave me a warning." Her boss' warning did not sit well with Julia. "I have always been a
bit rebellious and never liked being told what to do, so I quit that job and moved to
Houston with my new boyfriend," says Julia. In Houston, she worked briefly as a secretary,
thinking she could never be hired as a photographer in such a big city. At the same time,
Julia went through a miscarriage, and while it was devastating, the life-changing experience
helped Julia to see that she hated her new job. She promptly quit her job, grabbed
her portfolio and went to a small newspaper and where she was hired on the spot once again. However,
at the new job Julia had a personality conflict with one of the reporters, which forced
her to summon up the courage to apply to a larger newspaper. Sure enough, she was hired.
At the larger newspaper, Julia's work began to improve. People were writing the paper
to praise the newspaper's new photographer, and she soon won a coveted Associated Press
award.
As her photographic career became more serious, Julia knew that she needed to upgrade her
tools. Her first camera she had when she was 20 was a Minolta, but she had always set her
sights on owning a Nikon. The Nikon model she wanted had a removable prism finder, which
enabled the photographer to put the camera on the floor and see the image on the camera's
groundglass screen. It just so happened that the
newspaper's photo editor was selling his 35mm Nikon and all his lenses. With no money,
the only thing Julia had to offer was her car, a Ford Bronco. She asked the photo editor
if he would trade, and he agreed to the deal. So there was Julia with no transportation,
but with the camera she had always wanted, and she was ecstatic.
Shortly after securing her dream Nikon equipment, Julia discovered she was pregnant again
and learned that her boyfriend was being transferred to New Jersey. They decided to marry,
and Julia quit her job to focus on being a mom. On the drive from Texas, the couple
stopped in New Orleans, and Julia immediately knew it was "home." "I can't explain it,"
she says. "It just felt like I belonged there."
Later, the couple moved to St. Louis, where Julia had a darkroom in the basement. Julia
now had two children and focused on raising them. During the five years in St. Louis,
Julia tried to convince her husband to move the family to New Orleans. In a serendipitous
turn of events, her husband was offered a job New Orleans, and the family was soon on
their way to Louisiana. For Julia, arriving in New Orleans was like her wanderlust soul
finally coming home. "I still can't figure it out," she says, "but this is the only place
I have ever felt was right for me, it is truly my soul's hometown."
Although she finally felt at home in her dream city, Julia began to have panic attacks,
as her creative needs were going unmet. Her husband traveled a lot, and she could not
relate to the high society women in her town. "I have never been a surface dweller,"
Julia explains, "I was starving for some depth and creativity in my life and this meant
that I had to face that my marriage was not working." With no job, no work history for
eight years, and only $2000 in savings, Julia left to start life on her own for the first
time. It was scary, courageous and exactly what she needed.
Julia moved to a one-bedroom apartment and worked at an orthodontist office for more
than 2 years. She then purchased her first home and her first digital Minolta camera.
Now that the computer was her darkroom and the Internet was her network, it opened a
whole new world of opportunities for Julia. She began to meet other photographers who
encouraged her to market her work and to start off shooting weddings for free or at
low cost just to get the needed experience and exposure. Julia followed this advice
and suddenly, "It all started to get exciting!" she exclaims. "Finally I was doing
something that people really loved and appreciated and I wasn't just a weirdo
anymore!" Julia saw an ad in a magazine for the new Nikon D100 and with nothing but
sheer faith and talent, put the whole expense on her credit card. "When I bought the
D100, I really had no confidence or certainty in where my photography was going," notes
Julia. "I was really taking a huge chance, but was prepared to live on ramen noodles if
I had to." Within two more years she quit her job at the orthodontist and her
photography business exploded. In her first year, she shot 70-80 weddings, but it
became so overwhelming that Julia began to raise her prices higher and higher to cut
down on the workload. She was surprised to find that even with the higher prices her
work was in demand, which was proof that she was doing something very right.
What strikes me about Julia's work is the haunting yet beautiful quality of her
wedding and bridal portraits. You can tell that she throws caution to the wind and
does whatever comes to mind. As long as the bride is game, she says, "There are no
limits!"
I especially love Julia's Trash the Dress images, which you can find on her site:
www.juliabailey.com. Her
Trash the Dress images seem to best represent her as an artist. "My portraits are a
chance to be creative and express my own sense of beauty, a beauty that I hold in
my psyche," says Julia. "This is what I love: to create an image based upon the
intangible rather than reality or a social standard.
"As for the idea of Trash the Dress, which is now a popular trend, I suppose I have
been doing this all along, whenever the situation was available," says Julia. "The
idea of doing a portrait session after the wedding where the bride can finally be
free from the fear of getting her dress dirty is so cathartic. I have shot brides
frolicking in the ocean long before it became a trend. The first person that alerted
me to the Trash the Dress website was actually one of my brides who loved the concept."
You can find that site at
trashthedress.wordpress.com
which will soon become http://trashthedress.com. Julia recently did a Trash the Dress
session with a local videographer, and in the middle of the shoot he turned to her
and asked, "Would you rather be doing this or weddings?" The answer was an easy one.
"I would rather be doing these totally creative sessions, which are a lot less stress
and much more freedom." But Julia is quick to add that she is grateful for the wedding
business, as she has already booked 29 weddings for 2008.
Julia still lives in her own little house with every wall painted a different color. Her
humble environment symbolizes a life based on passion and art, rather than money. She says
she answers the door in her bare feet and doesn't play into the game of acting uppity just
because her income has improved. Julia stays true to herself and has undying love for her
children and her art, which really comes through in her images. It seems as though the
rebellious teenager, the dissatisfied housewife and the passionate artist of her past
have all come out to play in her gutsy digital creations.
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