JulieAnn Atwal

Hi I’m JulieAnn. I’m a photographer artist. I am based in Medway.

I realised I wanted to make photography my life during lockdown, when I took my camera out on walks and captured the strange, deserted, once-busy world in the town where I live.

A month prior to the pandemic, I began a 300 word poem project and my poetry encapsulates those surreal times. Then menopause hit hard and one of my symptoms was severe cognitive dysfunction which affected my expressive language – the ability to use words to express myself.  My photography was a life saver.

My photography, which began as a mindful exercise in mainly landscapes and botanical art transformed into a means to chart my feelings and emotions. It was cathartic and healing.

My main genre now is self-portraiture. I have laughed and cried, danced and screamed at my camera in my search for identity and self. I am finally in a place of self-acceptance and in terms of my body, I am comfortable in my own skin. I am, at last, able to celebrate and explore the feminine form.

I have recently decided to photograph other women to allow them to experience the freedom I  gained from the self-acceptance, self-confidence and self-worth that came with letting go and being vulnerable and ‘real’ in front of my lens.