“Working with old photographs is similar to engaging in a dialogue. I am not working on a blank canvas. Rather, I am entering into a pre-existing conversation that took place between the photographer and sitter, and where I experiment with a personal visual language.” 

Julie Cockburn (b. 1966, UK) is renowned for re-imagining and re-configuring found objects and vintage photographs into meticulously constructed and unique contemporary artworks. Having trained as a sculptor at London’s Central Saint Martins, Cockburn approaches each work as if working with a three-dimensional form. Her photographic process involves exploring and reacting to nuances such as colour, pose, composition or texture in found archetypal images and transforming them through embroidery, collage and painterly techniques. Rendering the original almost unrecognizable she opens up the work to new possibilities of narrative and interpretation. She has exhibited extensively in the UK, Europe and the United States and her work resides in a number of public collections, including the Yale Center for British Art (USA) and the Wellcome Collection (London, UK). 

Unique works from £1,500 + VAT