JULIE-ANNIE DAVIES
JulieAnne Davies is a Canadian photographer, born, raised and when not traveling, still carving out a small town rural existence in the mountains of British Columbia. As long as Julie-anne can recall, she had been obsessed with the human condition and the natural world. As a young child, she would thumb for hours through the pages of National Geographic, captivated by images of tribal cultures, human diversity, and remote landscapes. Then, in her early 20s, she set off on a series of solo hitchhiking adventures, camera in hand, to begin discovering the world through her own eyes. She soon discovered that her interests lay heavily in visually documenting cultures whose survival was intricately tied to the rhythms of nature and the land on which they live, and even more acutely and only naturally perhaps, to the lives and roles of the women within those communities. She is a mother, a travel/ adventure photographer, a gardener, and a nomad at heart - things society doesn't always deem go together. Fortunately, Julie-anne has never taken much notice of societal norms and advises others, whenever possible, to do the same.
Perhaps the most fascinating truth Julie-Anne has realized through time spent with other cultures is that for all of our differences, at the fundamental core of our humanity, we are all deeply the same. Her goal is to connect with her subjects through this shared humanity while documenting this planet's beautiful yet rapidly vanishing cultural and ecological diversity. She currently travels the world visually storytelling for the world's largest female outdoor adventure company. Wild Women Expeditions {www.wildwomenexpeditions.com).
In addition, she leads small-group photography tours to remote parts of the planet for Wild Images Photo Tours (www.wildimages-phototours.corn). When at home, Julie-Anne spends a great deal of her time capturing the stunning landscapes in which she lives and adventuring outdoors with her husband and children.
Ideeply respect my subjects for allowing me into their world for those moments and feel a great responsibility to authentically portray the story behind their eyes. As a female photographer, and often a solo one at that, the women I encounter are almost always as intrigued by me as I am of them. Despite our cultural differences, this often opens up a sense of connection based on our most elemental of traits, and perhaps is why I am drawn to document women as much as I do."