American-born photographer Julia Calfee has spent most of her
professional life living and working in Europe, and is fluent in
French. She majored in journalism at NYU and studied art history
at the Sorbonne in Paris. Her first book, Photogénèse, was
published by the Joan Miro Foundation.
From 1996 to 2002, she focused on Mongolia, where she led a
caravan to bring medicine to remote areas. During this time she
also documented life in Mongolian prisons for a relief
organization, and photographed the blight of poverty in Ulan
Bator. Over these years she also took pictures of traditional
reindeer herders in the north, particularly one female shaman.
The experiences with the shaman were published in a
limited-edition catalogue called Mountains Spirits of Mongolia,
published by the Richard Liu Foundation. In 2003, Spirits and
Ghosts: Journeys Through Mongolia was published by PowerHouse,
New York. This book explores the transitions and changes in
Mongolia since 1996, touching upon the obstinate ritual and
beliefs of this country still steeped in the murkiness of the
post- Communist era, and awkwardly adapting to a new democratic
system. A series of exhibitions followed these publications in
New York, London, Paris, Milan and Brussels.
She then began to photograph what she refers to as the New
China, which has included documenting the private lives of a new
class of people who are suddenly extremely wealthy as well as
the urbanscapes that have arisen with the overall economic
changes of recent years. She has also documented the new
contemporary art scene in Beijing, principally the 798 Factory,
and has spent time in the northwest and southwest of China,
where Central Asian influence still dominates despite the march
of Chinese influence ever westward. In these areas she also
found evidence of a never-changing China, where some groups of
people hold on to ways of life seemingly unaltered since 1,000
years ago. She is conversant in Mongolian and has cultivated a
large network of contacts in Asia and Europe, from shepherds to
CEOs.
For the past three years, when not in Brussels or Beijing,
Julia Calfee has been living mainly in New York City's Hotel
Chelsea, where she is documenting the state of mind that has
existed and still exists in that unique place. Calfee's work has
appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York
Times, Time, Business Week, London Sunday Times, Paris Match,
Guardian, Elle Italia, Elle Japan Marie Claire, Paris Photo,
Digital Photography, Corriere della Sera, and Photo Eight. She
is represented by Polaris Images.
All Photographs and text on this web site are copyrighted and
protected under United States and International copyright laws.
The photographs and text may not be reproduced in any form, store or
manipulated without prior permission.
INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL Photograph by Julia
Calfee
available now
"People are always asking me what it's
like to live in the Chelsea
Hotel. Not always easy. There are times I
felt like a fly caught in
a spider's web, at risk of being eaten alive
if I made the wrong
move. ..."
Since early 2004, I have had access to
the private lives of
the new wave of wealthy young Chinese. In
the new China,
chateaus have replaced teahouses as the
preferred symbols
of status.
Shamanism
Through day-to-day living with a female
shaman over the
course of five years, I became intertwined
in her whole way
of life as a bridge between the spiritual
world and the human
world. In other places, with other shamans,
I have found
they all fill the same need: acting as
mediator to heal the
suffering caused by disharmony between these
two realms.
All Photographs and text on this web site are copyrighted and
protected under United States and International copyright laws.
The photographs and text may not be reproduced in any form, store or
manipulated without prior permission.
