A French artist documenting weddings and families across
Puerto Vallarta, Punta Mita, Sayulita and all over Mexico since 2006.
My name is Julien. I'm a French artist, and I came to Mexico in 2006 — charmed by its people, its light, and this stretch of coast I like to call paradise. I stayed, and today I'm a happy husband raising two daughters here with my wife.
I studied architecture in Paris, but my heart always belonged to other arts — writing, painting, sculpture. I've always loved to use my hands and my mind to make things that make us feel and think. Then I discovered photography, and I never looked back. I have all of those elements at my disposal now — architecture, painting, sculpture, writing — and I bring them together to capture the sentiment, the joy and the passion of a moment. That is what makes a picture mine. I'm a perfectionist, and I find perfection in imperfection — I take the constraints of a scene and turn them into something that works.
"I try to stay invisible and let the day flow naturally — that's when the true emotions come."
Photojournalism is often imagined as the absence of art — the plain transcription of facts. Not in my case. I always look for the angle, the reflection, the light, but I take them from what is already there. I never make it up. And I keep the images as natural as possible: I select and edit every one of them myself.
Documenting a wedding takes all of my attention. You have to split your mind between the scene and the camera: the right lens, the right settings, the focus — while watching the people and the details. It is demanding, and that is exactly why I love it.
A wedding is the story of two people and the account of one day. But above all it is a multitude of small stories laid end to end: the getting ready, the reunions, the ceremony, the journeys — everything that makes that wedding yours alone.
Something unplanned always happens. Sometimes it happens behind me and by the time I turn around it has passed. And sometimes — this comes with experience — I feel it coming and I am ready. That is where the unforgettable frames come from.
Without a scene, an image could have been made anywhere, at any time. You need to remember where it all happened, what the weather was like, to find again what you felt. So yes, I photograph the place and the details too — I know the work they cost you.
And then there is a moment that belongs to no one but the two of you, usually as the sun drops. We step away for a while. No stiff poses: just love and light, unhurried. That is the photograph you will hang on the wall.
Spots a happy tear at 100 meters. Part invisible ninja, part fine artist — always behind these lens-oculars.
If it moves, she's already filming it — vows, first dances and dance-floor chaos, all in cinema quality.
Catches every “I do”, every toast and every laugh — yes, even that one joke from your uncle.
Your love story from the sky — palm trees, ocean and the two of you, as the frigatebirds see it.
Story-telling is the art of being unnoticed — to capture true emotions.
Named by the Wedding Photographer Society in 2018 — and recognized by the field's leading international institutions.
Julien's work has been published in Vogue and National Geographic, and seen on television in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in Punta Mita — photographing celebrities such as Lorena Ochoa, the Jack Link's family and Leslie Jordan.
