Julie O'Connor

About

Julie O'Connor is an award-winning fine art photographer and photojournalist. She first studied photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with master photographer Kenneth Josephson, and later at the New School for Social Research in New York with the legendary Lisette Model. Her photojournalism has appeared in Time, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, People, The Christian Science Monitor, UNICEF calendars, and many other distinguished publications. Julie has curated a number of corporate art collections and local shows of art and photography in Connecticut.

Julie O'Connor's work has been exhibited and is now in the permanent collection of The Chicago Art Institute, as well as a variety of private collections. She is a recent winner of the People's Choice award at a juried show at the Darkroom Gallery, Essex Junction, VT. She has won numerous awards and ribbons for her photography at shows and venues ranging from the Martha's Vineyard Ag Fair to the Fairfield Museum.

Artist Statement

I travel the world looking for images which stand out in their power and poetry. Sometimes this requires travelling to places such as China, Tibet, Sweden, or Cuba. But sometimes these images can be found in Fairfield County. Sometimes an image will easily give away its location, such as Tibetan Man in a Coracle. The serene atmosphere in this photograph is illusory, as this traditional way of life is severely endangered. This is a result of both the political climate in the area and the spread of modern technology. In capturing this scene, I witnessed the exotic become the universal, as in its most basic form it is simply a picture of someone finishing up a day’s fishing.

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I seek to make images that are aesthetically beautiful yet also express a curiosity as to why something exists in the way that it does. Why a pink, fuzzy rose scented couch, for example?  I aim to entice the viewer to examine objects and scenes in a more critical way, yet also enjoy them for their visual appeal.