Portfolio_JulienVallon.pdf

This project examines a novel approach to representing the body and the feminine, challenging the dominance of the male gaze and striving to transcend the processes of sexualisation and objectification. By photographing women of all ages, shapes and skin tones, the intention is to celebrate a plural and contemporary femininity. This is to be achieved by creating an authentic dialogue between camera, model and artist. This work is conceived as an exploration of the body as a space for expression. It is a constant search for a different way of looking at things, a vision free of stereotypes.

L’objectif est ici de célébrer une féminité plurielle et contemporaine, en créant un dialogue authentique entre l’appareil, le modèle et l’artiste. Cette série est une exploration de la représentation du corps et du féminin, une opposition au male gaze visant à dépasser la sexualisation et l’objectification systémique. Cette réflexion photographique est pensée avant tout comme une interrogation du corps en tant qu’espace d’expression, recherche constante d’un autre regard masculin sur le féminin, d’une vision dénuée de stéréotypes.

This commission from the Centre d'Art Contemporain de la Villa Noailles brings into dialogue the modernist rigidity of space and the explosiveness of the body in movement, the tension between the static and the dynamic. I wanted to explore the body's adaptation, resistance and expression in relation to spatial constraints, capturing those moments when the body as actor transforms the space, creates a sensorial experience and pushes back the boundaries - in this case architectural - through its organic energy and spontaneity.

Cette commande du Centre d’Art Contemporain de la Villa Noailles met en dialogue la rigueur moderniste du lieu et l’explosivité du corps en mouvement, la tension entre le statique et le dynamique. J’ai souhaité interroger l’adaptation, la résistance, l’expression d’un corps vis à vis des contraintes spatiales, et ainsi saisir les instants où le corps-acteur transforme l’espace, créé une expérience sensorielle et repousse les limites - ici architecturales - par son énergie organique et sa spontanéité.

 with the Musee Rodin (Paris) and the MUDEC (Milan)

This series, inspired by the work of Auguste Rodin, is a plunge into the tension between movement and fixity, control and abandonment. Working with renowned prima ballerina Marie-Agnès Gillot, this work seeks to capture the vitality and raw expressiveness of the body while establishing a dialogue between the art of sculpture and the art of photography. An interrogation of the human condition through the prism of the body, celebrating its capacity to transcend itself.

Mixed photographic methods / 5 photographic prints acquired by the Rodin Museum in 2018

Cette série, guidée par l’œuvre d’Auguste Rodin est une plongée dans la tension entre mouvement et fixité, entre contrôle et abandon. En travaillant avec Marie-Agnès Gillot, danseuse étoile renommée, ce travail cherche à capter la vitalité et la force expressive brute du corps, tout en établissant un dialogue entre l’art de la sculpture et celui de la photographie. Un questionnement de la condition humaine à travers le prisme du corps, célébrant sa capacité à se transcender.

Techniques photographiques mixtes / 5 œuvres acquises par le Musée Rodin en 2018

Dancer Alanna Archibald, Janina and Conor Walmsley
Director of photography Clément de Hollogne
Music Claude Salmieri

A manifesto in movement, Julien Vallon directs a visual open letter on the destructive impact of past generations

In the current state of permacrisis, the way out follows no easy trajectory. And yet, as issues of environmental depletion, civil unrest, and political instability occupy minds on a daily basis, maintaining the resilience to rise against it all presents a source of hope for the future.

Picturing the future of humanity through the eyes of the young generation left to pick up the pieces, WHAT COMES NEXT reflects on a world broken by consumerism and greed, casting shadow over the remnants of abundance stripped by those who came before. Directed by Julien Vallon, the film takes the shape of a visual open letter, written from today’s unwitting activists to the unthinking elders who secured the state of the world as we know it. Through biting words and impassioned movement – embodied by renowned dancers, Diablo Premier and Stala Muerte – Vallon’s film manifests as a searing commentary on destructive forces initiated in the 20th century: entitlement over the material, and over the planet, and its resources.

“It is a manifesto in images, on our future, on our humanity. The one we have left to live, because it is too late for the faults of our parents. They shut their eyes. Ours are wide open. It is a film about the hope we have left. What can we still believe in today? In ourselves. Because our future is taking shape now.”

Developing a unique way of capturing movement and lensing the human form through his fashion photography, Vallon projects his manifesto through soaring panoramas of a land left empty, while the dancers’ movements interpret the urgency of each word. Painted against a stark landscape, as we enter a new chapter, WHAT COMES NEXT depicts a generation seeking hope within hopelessness, creating a positive force through which to overturn the situation they’ve been dealt, and rewrite the destiny of a world in decline. 

When I saw you, I didn't want to capture the surface of things, but what was behind it. With you, I didn't want to capture space, but time. Because space is a shape, time is a story. I devoured your body, I tracked down the beginning of your life. There was always only one thing to shoot: your body and its cry. Then your nudity lost its sexual significance in favor of a new visibility, beyond the masculine and feminine. Other territories.

I didn't want to capture the surface of things, but what was behind it. 

I didn't want to capture space, but time. 

Because space is a shape, time is a story. 

I tracked down the beginning of your life. 

There was always only one thing to shoot: 

Then your nudity lost its sexual significance in favor of a new visibility,

Julien Vallon is a French visual artist whose practice examines the essence of our identity through our bodies. He has made a name for himself with works that celebrate movement and form. Julien's work is regularly exhibited and is part of prestigious museum collections. 

Attracted by the narrative and emotional scope of cinema, he has directed several award-winning short films and is currently working on his first feature. 

Julien listens to people's bodies, capturing a precise movement, an attitude, and proposes a reflection on our contemporary lives and their histories. Every gesture becomes a word, every movement a sentence. The idea that the body can translate thoughts and feelings, that it expresses itself as a language made up of attitudes and rhythms, defines Julien's visual quest. 
He is a fervent advocate of women's empowerment and representation in the industry. His work often challenges societal norms, celebrating diversity and breaking conventional boundaries.

ABOUT

L’Usage Langage, 2024, MUCEM, Marseille (in production)

Archives Corps, 2022, Centre d’Art Contemporain de la Villa Noailles, Hyères

Institutional Commission

Julien's work is now part of the collections of several museums:

•Contemporary Art Center, Villa Noailles, Hyères

Permanent Collections

Sculpting the Senses, 2024, Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris

Rodin e la danza, 2023, MUDEC, Museo delle Culture, Milan

Pièces Personnelles, Biennale Internationale de la Photographie Contemporaine, 2022,

All in this together, 2021, PhotoVogue Festival, Milan

Alchemic Couture, 2020, Stary Browar Art Gallery, Poznan

Archives Corps, Festival International de la Photographie, 2020, Centre Contemporain

Variations, Paris Photo Festival, 2018, Paris

Love Brings Love, 2017, Saint-Germain Photo Festival, Paris

Photo-Roman, Havas Gallery, 2016, Les Rencontres d’Arles

Paysage du Souvenir, 2015, Galerie Premier Regard et Fédération des Aveugles de

Selected Exhibitions

The Collection of the Museum at FIT, 2022, Taschen

35e Festival International de Photo, 2020, Editions Villa Noailles

+Photographie, Acquisitions des collections publiques, 2020, Le Bec en L’Air

INQUIRIES

ABOUT

Institutional Commission

Permanent Collections

Selected Exhibitions

selected publications