French photographer Julie Bourges talks about her women and sea project depicting strong women who are challenging traditional boundaries.
Julie Bourges lives between Rennes and Paris. In 2021, she received support for documentary photography from the CNAP (the French National Centre for Visual Arts) for her entire project on women and the sea. In 2022 she won a major photographic commission from the National Library of France for her project on women fishermen in France.
As a child, Julie spent long hours reading and imagining other worlds. Today, Julie’s photography is inspired by artists who blur the boundaries between reality and dreams.
Julie works in series of images, initially very introspective until two chance encounters began her fascination with telling visual stories of women and the sea. Her first series ‘After The Hand of the Witch’ was inspired by the story of Cécile, a young woman shipwright in French Catalonia, followed by “Les eaux-fortes”, following in the footsteps of women working as fishermen.
Julie continues to tell the intimate odysseys of women, long confined to protective figures at the prow of boats, who by taking to the sea free themselves from ancestral beliefs by the strength of their bodies.