Julie Berson

Women Speak on the Election

Women’s rights were central to the 2024 election. As a woman I turned to art as a way to connect with other women in particular, across the entire political spectrum. I wanted to understand what they were thinking and feeling in these polarized times.

I worked in two media – photography and the written word – both photographing and interviewing each woman. I wanted their words to convey their thoughts and feelings, and the intimacy of the photographic portraits to reveal what words could not. No woman is identified with any specific quote, in order to dispel stereotypes. My own preconceptions were quickly shattered as I heard the layered and sometimes surprisingly unstereotypical ideas and thoughts that were shared with me.

The intention of this project is to bear witness to the common humanity of women from every political perspective. To offer the hope that we can reach for each with both empathy and accountability, even in the most extreme environment. In doing this work I learned that a deeper connection and understanding is possible for me and that every woman I spoke to was thirsting for the same thing, despite our differences. Perhaps by having one conversation at a time, one connection at a time, “bird by bird”, we can be healed.

Artist Bio

Julie Berson is a photographer whose work is rooted in the dense visual intoxication of her Bronx, New York upbringing.

She attended New York City’s High School of Music and Art and The Cooper Union as a prelude to a long-lived, multi-disciplinary and accomplished artistic career as a painter, illustrator, graphic artist and hand-lettering designer. Photography is now the center of her creative life. Her visual home includes street photography, portraits, women’s identity issues and the beauty and meaning of people’s stories.

Her work has been shown at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, on the cover of The Sun magazine, in the 2024 Women Street Photographers Virtual Exhibition, and the photo book “Happening/Happenstance” published by the Tokyo based gallery “Ephemere”.

She is currently working on a project that combines images and text that asks diverse women in the US how the recent presidential election has affected them as females.