The Work

Through my photographic practice, I am exploring the boundaries of gesture and romance, individuality and identity to understand something about where we belong or what we desire to belong to.

I am interested in the foundations of our relationships, to ourselves and to others. The love we are able to give as well as receive and the generating of self love and respect. I am interested in the celebrated act of giving and receiving, the act of giving to receive, the appreciation of the other and the validation of the self.

We define ourselves through the 'Other', we love ourselves through being loved. We belong to a something we have chosen, or are born into. We create to understand, we commit to give, to claim, to own, to give up, to belong.. to have, to be.

In times of individuality and self-realisation, marriage seems to be the most profound thing to give, the biggest sacrifice to make. The giving of yourself to the other, a concept we seem to desire as much as we fear it.

Having migrated at the age of 21 on my own from Germany to Australia, I have often wondered where I belong as an individual. The unification of individuals through marriage i find as interesting a concept as the moving to a country, finding of a culture and a place to belong.

Julia Schauenburg

Julia Schauenburg was born in July 1978 and raised in Hamburg, Germany, where she also finished high school majoring in Fine Arts. Growing up with a psychologist mother and in a house full of artwork and interesting people, observing, watching, interpreting and creating became second nature. Also growing up with an entrepeneur father combined the love of art with a sense of reality.

In 1999 Julia went travelling to Australia, falling in love with the place and its people, she went on to study at the College of Fine Arts (University of New South Wales). finishing with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Photo media. She followed this with a 'Master of Arts' which won her the 'Kodak Photography Student of the Year' award in 2003.

Julia is now an Australian resident and has been working as a freelance photographer since 2003. She has been shooting for different clients as well as exhibiting her personal work in galleries in Australia and Germany.