Julia Cluett

Inviting Calm

Giving birth. Graduation. Starting a new job or career. Empty nesting. Moving homes. Losing a loved one. While these events may be anticipated, expected and publicly recognized, they usher in more private and unique journeys of transition. How each of us adapts to life’s changes is an individual journey of meaningful personal growth across emotional landscapes and altered life rhythms.

My work honors these personal journeys of transition. Whether landscape or interior, the images reveal the moods, spaces and rituals explored during times of transition. I cultivate authenticity and vulnerability as elements in my work, which is rarely staged or produced.

This project emerged as an emotional response to the unsettling changes introduced by the coronavirus pandemic. These images suggest a refuge of calm found in the natural world while inviting viewers into more intimate spaces and personal rituals of centering.

 

Artist Bio

Journeys, whether inward or outward, are the inspiration for Julia Cluett’s photography. Using medium format film, her black-and-white portraits explore human vulnerability and courage in moments of personal or professional transition. Julie’s color, digital images, informed by twelve years abroad in India, the Czech Republic and London, invite viewers to pause  — whether to study found objects, to observe cultural rituals, or to slow down in our everyday moments and interactions.

When Julia is not behind the lens, she is helping families at end-of-life as a hospice social worker in Massachusetts. Currently, she is exploring her relationship with photography-as-sanctuary, by seeking to capture contemplative moments and spaces that invite calm amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Julia has participated in two group exhibitions in Prague (2005, 2006) and has studied portraiture with Joyce Tenneson at the Maine Media Workshops.

Contact Julia Cluett