Julie Fletcher

Julie Fletcher is a contemporary Australian nature photographer. She is always in search of new and unique locations, travelling the length and breadth of the Australian Outback to capture fresh and unique landscape and nature images. She was born in Adelaide, South Australia and moved to Sydney in her early 20's but it was several years later when she went back to study Photography; doing her Diploma of Commercial Photography over 4 years part time and also working full time in an office job to pay the bills. This ultimately set the wheels in motion for her and her career change years later.

Growing up, Julie was never very close to either of her parents and was an only child. She picked up a family photo album and whilst looking through it realised that there were hardly any memories in that album from her childhood apart from a few baby photos. This is when she found that photography was the place she could go to make memories. It was many years before Julie would be ready to commit to study it for the purpose of a career.

Fletcher has won many awards for her work in the last few years and recently achieved international recognition in the 2013 National Geographic Nature Competition in which her well-known image “Graveyard” was a finalist and chosen over 8000 entries.

“I believe what makes my photography stand out is my energy, passion, commitment and consistency which I try and portray through my images. I don't just photograph an area, I try and connect to it and when I do it allows me to get the best images over a period of time.”

Julie Fletchers are always very engaging and colourful. Your eye is not only drawn to the subject/s in the image but rather everything surrounding it since the photograph takes up such a large area. Some of her images incorporate background and sky blurs creating a dream-like mood upon viewing her work. People like Julie Fletcher probably would have become an accountant if Photoshop didn’t exist. She manipulates the hell out of every image to make it pop. She never touches a photo without seeming to enhance it. She doesn't destroy, she highlights. She highlights the magic of the Australian outback. This is the sort of photography I want to do one day.

This sort of manipulation would not be possible if the original photos were not so tightly and expertly focused. She’s not just a Photoshop painter; she’s a bloody good photographer, especially in large format.