Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia C. Martin.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My family is full of painters, so I had the creative genes, but no drawing or painting skills whatsoever. Growing up I studied classical piano and loved the creative release from it, but I needed something more visual. I was lucky enough to attend a high school with a darkroom and took a photography class.
The minute I watched an image appear in the developer I was hooked. It was pure magic. Working in the darkroom allowed me to get the kind of visual effect I wanted and I loved physically creating with my hands, which is why I still work with film. As I refined my practice, I worked more with alternative materials and manipulating film.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s a struggle for any artist to stay true to themselves when receiving conflicting critiques. You have to learn to take what makes sense for yourself and your work, and not let yourself get caught up in pleasing everyone else. That being said, critiques can bring many new and interesting ideas to work.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
My work tends to deal with the themes of death and mortality. For the past several years, I have been working on a series of still lifes of found dead animals. I’m a very sensitive person, so seeing a dead animal was always an emotional experience for me, and I wanted to explore this discomfort further. As I did the work, I realized that these small creatures are fragile, and death can be a quiet and beautiful passing. Death is something that is rarely talked about, yet the only thing in life that’s certain. My aim through this work is to open this discussion and for people to see death in a different light.
My recent work is visually different from my previous work but deals with the same themes. I have been fogging film of landscape images to create a veil between life and death, myself and reality. This veil also represents the desire to be part of the landscape but the physical inability to. This work has allowed me to get back to a more physical creative practice through the manipulation of the film. I have also been experimenting with printing on unconventional surfaces such as on wood and silk.
Is there anyone, in particular, you would like to recognize? Mentors, etc.?
Every photography teacher or professor I have had has been a huge influence on me.
They have each opened my eyes to new things in my work and inspired me in different ways. I did have one especially influential mentor, however. I worked for several years at The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops assisting various instructors. I had the pleasure of working with Susan Burnstine, and she understood my work completely. I did several other workshops with her outside of Santa Fe, and we became good friends. Susan was able to help me understand my own work better and pushes me to be true to myself as an artist.
I am also incredibly lucky to have a family and significant other who full-heartedly support me in my art.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.juliacmartin.com/
- Email: julia.christine.martin@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliacmartin/
Image Credit:
©Julia C. Martin, ©Luke Montavon
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