Feaverish Photography Blog

Despite what Rod Stewart sings, every picture does not tell a story. You could say “every picture can be interpreted by the viewer,” but those pictures aren’t telling a story; they’re just not telling a story so completely that the viewer is forced to. Actually telling a story with a photo is much, much harder. After all, every bit of story you reveal in your photo is just one more thing for a viewer to misinterpret, to judge, to dislike. Far easier to present a photo mystery and pass the story-telling buck to your viewer. All of which makes today’s interviewee (and her story-rich photos) that much more impressive.

Julia Galdo works on her own and in collaboration with Cody Cloud (as Team JUCO), and was nice enough to talk with me about her style, her process, and most importantly her stories.

Aaron: Hi Julia.

Julia: Hi Aaron!

Aaron: So, there’s a vibe in a lot of your photos, I think, of a kind of mid-century suburban loneliness. Lots of mid-century-modern furniture and houses, people all alone looking despondent. Is that something you’re exploring?

Julia: I think that’s something I keep coming back to, probably because I really like that style, and also because I’m a huge fan of Erwin Olaf’s depression body of work. Also partly because I think things in those times were built with imagination — this thought of what the future should look like, and they spared no expense on it — that’s really alluring to me both stylistically and visually.

Aaron: Oh I don’t know Erwin Olaf, I don’t think!

Julia: Please check out Ewrin Olaf. The depression stuff is beautiful. I just jock that dude’s style so hard.

Aaron: I like that you use the background as a kind of set for your portraits, without it seeming too staged. But it’s usually nicely lit, and in focus.

Julia: I don’t really light my background all that much. When I scout my stuff, I just look for good natural light, honestly.

Aaron: What about the loneliness vibe?

Julia: I think I feel that way, and I make my subjects act like I feel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a really happy person. But it’s cathartic…like when you cry really hard and then you feel better, even if there’s nothing particularly wrong, you know?

Aaron: Totally. So photography is very cathartic for you?

Julia: Yes, very much so. In fact, I just photographed a woman crying yesterday. I asked her if she would cry for me and she did, and it was marvelous. Who knows if the images will look too cliché, I just know that the experience was totally worth it.

Aaron: Like, a woman on the street?

Julia: No, this actress. I asked her if she could cry on the spot, and she said she could, and then I built a shoot around that, and she came through with the tears. It was really emotional, and embarrassing. But I dunno, it was something I had wanted to do for a long time.

Aaron: Embarrassing watching her cry while you photographed it?

Julia: Yeah. She was experiencing something emotional — you have to in order to cry, even if it’s on demand — so I felt embarrassed looking at it.

Aaron: I’m sure. Still, what an experience.

Julia: Totally.

Aaron: I love the series you did recently of the girl and the old man. Can you talk about that?

Julia: Sure thing. Let’s see…it’s a long story. The agent of the girl in those photographs was working with Todd Hido for S Magazine. Through working with him she found out about the magazine and what they were about, and she thought I should do something really cool, and she’d try and submit it on my behalf. So she approached me about shooting a nude story for this magazine that “is like a cross between Playboy and French Vogue.” I was like, “Hell fucking yeah.”

Aaron: Haha.

Julia: But then I spent weeks thinking about what I wanted to do. Being a girl, I didn’t want to spread some chick’s knees apart, or show off titties for no good reason. I knew I wanted to do some sort of narrative, because in my mind that’s what I always do. And I struggled. I looked through a lot of work and I finally came back to some of my favorites: Larry Sultan’s work about his parents. There’s a shot of his father in the living room swinging a golf club. I have always loved that image. And I thought to myself, what if there was a woman in his hands instead of the club? And the story grew from there. I brought Cody onto the project, because he always makes my projects better, because we both bring a little something different to the table. We thought about the story — there’re many different directions it could go in — but in my mind, there was this really delicate and beautiful relationship happening between the old man and the woman, like they were in their own bubble. Super tender, nothing naughty about it; just sweet. And then we talked about this woman being the ghost of his late wife…

Aaron: [ !! ] Awesome.

Julia: …or just some young woman that was deeply in love with this person. And we were happy with the way the images came out in relation to those thoughts.

Aaron: And this was a collaboration with Cody Cloud?

Julia: On shoot day it was; up until then I really dealt with it internally. But I must say, Cody and I did have some deep conversations about the subject, and he took my favorite image in the entire series. I’m so happy he was there.

Aaron: Which image is that?

Julia: The one of the books, and them reaching for a book. [ see it here ]

Aaron: Oh, yeah.

Julia: That image is killer. So so so so so good.

Aaron: My favorite is them walking along the pool.

Julia: That was me.

Aaron: So how does the collaboration with Cody work? There haven’t been that many photographer/photographer collaborations that i can think of.

Julia: I think there’s a decent amount these days. It works like this: we come up with ideas, then we both expand and bring something to the table together, and on shoot day, we shoot in our complimenting styles. Not to back too much into one corner, but, easily put, Cody is far more technically inclined. He doesn’t really envision images and then build on them as much as I do. He’s just happy as can be shooting pretty much anything. He also tends to shoot portraits closer up. Me, I’m the brains behind the style most of the time, and the emotional one. I also like placing people into environments to see how they interact, so I shoot way far back. Like, all the fucking time. You combine both of our styles and what we’re really good at together, and we fill in each other’s gaps.

Aaron: That’s very cool.

Julia: It’s still a work in progress. But it’s getting better all the time.

Aaron: You said he tends to shoot portraits closer up, but some of my favorite pictures of yours are close up portraits. The woman with the veil, for instance.

Julia: That’s Gail, yeah. That was Cody’s birthday present from me, that woman. I took him to her house on his birthday to shoot her. 70 years old. I don’t normally do close-ups though. I’m trying to learn how to pull in and pull out enough; it’s still difficult for me.

Aaron: There’s another great one of a young woman square in the middle of the frame, staring at you, with the sun in her hair.

Julia: Yeah, I love that image. It’s like a crowd pleaser, which makes me feel weird, but whatever. I loved the way her wig looked.

Aaron: Do you use film, or digital? Both? Everyone uses both these days…

Julia: I use both. BUT i prefer film any day any time.

Aaron: How come?

Julia: Because, man, digital sucks balls and a half. On a serious note though, digital just doesn’t capture the same curves. It doesn’t use natural light in the same way. Sure, digital is great, but I honestly think it’s great for making things look fake.

Aaron: Fake is very popular these days.

Julia: When you see beautiful natural light, it’s like god is giving you a gift. And I want to capture that gift with something that can actually handle it: film. Seriously, I can’t stand using digital with natural light. My best images, all of my best images, they’re natural light! I don’t want film to go away.

Aaron: Oh, I don’t think it will.

Julia: I am scared it will. It’s too unaffordable. There’s no way to actually shoot enough these days. And because no one uses film, developing is so expensive.

Aaron: Well, that’s true. The price might keep going up. But just for aesthetic reasons, I think people will be using film for a long time. At least through our children’s lifetimes.

Julia: I hope so. I just hope it doesn’t get too unaffordable. It almost is for me.

Aaron: Me too. And every time I go to the lab to get another roll developed, I’m the only one there and the price has gone up.

Julia: True story. That’s why I’m scared it’s going to fade out.

Aaron: Well, to use a cliché, it’s still huge in Japan. And it’s still popular with a lot of established, professional photographers. We just need to outlive them.

Julia: You’re riiiiiiiiight. I’m going to do everything in my power to let people know it’s the best way to go.

Aaron: I think the best way is to just keep taking amazing film pictures. How much digital do you use?

Julia: Almost all of my professional work is digital, almost all of my personal work is film.

Aaron: Why such a clean split?

Julia: I dunno…mostly because there’s no budget or time with my assignments.

Aaron: It’s very hard for me to tell which of your photos are film and which digital.

Julia: I spend a lot of time matching them both, so thank you, that’s a compliment. How is this interview going?

Aaron: Haha, it’s great! How do you feel about it?

Julia: I feel honest.

Aaron: See? That’s great!

Julia: Good.

Aaron: Do you give a lot of direction when you’re doing a shoot?

Julia: Totally. I just want to see what things look like sometimes, so I ask for silly things. Or when I’m feeling in the lonely mood, I tell them to feel disappointed or longing. I learned to do it while I was photographing myself, and it just stuck.

Aaron: I love the self-portrait of you on the couch under the framed portraits.

Julia: That’s an oldie goldie. I photographed myself looking like I was crying in front of those things. I was still in that state then.

Aaron: What’s your ideal assignment?

Julia: My ideal working condition goes like this: “Hey, we want you to shoot our look book. We like your style, here’s the clothes, do what you want with them.” My best work is made that way. That girl with the wig? That whole shoot was just me messing around with the clothes. I like guidelines, don’t get me wrong, but I also have a strong vision, I think, so I like it when I have the freedom to do what I want.

Aaron: How long have you been doing this?

Julia: I started taking photographs in high school, of my friends mainly, just to see what they’d turn out like. I got hooked. I went to school for two years at the Florida International University for marine biology, and I took photo classes there the whole time. I had this amazing teacher that really encouraged me to take the leap into photography full time. I got my first professional assignment in ’06, and have been a full time photographer since the beginning of this year.

Aaron: And how has your first full year been?

Julia: Man, a full-on learning experience. Really scary. Super hard. But also at times very satisfying. I’m really happy I’m making the effort this year to follow my dreams. I still may not make it; there’s still a lot of uncertainty. But I’m trying very hard.

Big thanks to Julia for taking the time to chat with me, and make sure you check out her portfolio, Flickr page, and the Team JUCO site for more of her amazing work.