The Julie Project

    

I never really know how to explain to non-visual people why I love photography so much. I'm a visual learner and along with that, a visual rememberer, a true believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what do you tell those people who see a picture and don't see the point? Well today, I found it. Kelly at Willette shared a link to another photog's site. Darcy Padilla is a documentary photographer whose feature work is called The Julie Project:

"For the last 18 years I [Darcy] have photographed 
Julie Baird’s complex story of multiple homes, 
AIDS, drug abuse, abusive relationships, poverty, 
births, deaths, loss and reunion. Following Julie 
from the back-streets of San Francisco 
to the backwoods of Alaska."

Go. Read Julie's story. Listen to her words. Understand that photography is not about taking a pretty picture. It is telling the story. It is preservation of a person, a life. The camera cannot lie. 

Julie's story is not pretty. It is gritty, dirty, painful and raw. But it is true. It is now. It is Julie. 

DISCLAIMER: 

This is a story of drugs, poverty, abuse and dying. The photos are brutally honest. There is nudity, there are images of birth, there is drug use, and there is death. 
Read at your own discretion.