I quit being a teacher to discover my mixed heritage and I love what I found

When I arrive at The Gallery in Rochester, a place hidden at the back of a shop on the High Street, it is empty, only filled with eclectic photographs hung on the wall or laid on the ground. Local Julie Atwal, known professionally as JulieAnn, has not yet arrived but her work already speaks volumes about her talent.

Minutes later, she walked in with a sweet smile, and straight after a short introduction she asked me ‘do you have a favourite?’ – and yes I did. The photo I picked was a black and white selfie she took in her back garden with colourful shapes covering half of her face, titled ‘DNA trail’.

“I’m glad you picked this one,” she said. “It’s also my favourite.” JulieAnn has a particular interest in nature and the changing movement of light and shadow, the wind and the weather as well as mental health, and her mixed heritage.

READ MORE: Sentencing date confirmed for PCSO Julia James murderer Callum Wheeler

When asked to describe the meaning of DNA trail, she said: “This is a picture of me. These are the countries that my genetics are from, this is my heritage. I had an ancestry test and this was the visual map that they sent you. My mother is English, from East Anglia and my dad is Jamaican.



Julie holding her photograph 'DNA Trail'
Julie holding her photograph ‘DNA Trail’

“I just find it fascinating. In fact when people do this, they’ve discovered they’re from places all over the world and it’s just a unique fingerprint for me to enjoy too.”

After quitting her job as a primary school teacher in April, Julie followed her passion for photography not knowing where she would end up but she knew it was the right decision to make. Despite loving working with children, she said it was a “conglomeration of events” that led her to change career.

Untold Stories – subscribe to our newsletter now



Untold Stories – a new newsletter bringing together the very best journalism about and for our underserved and minority communities from across the south east.

Simply press here to enter your email address and get news, features and plenty more besides direct to your inbox.

And subscribe to the KentLive newsletter here for the latest breaking news and updates.

“I worked in primary schools, I’ve worked with autistic children, and I’m a dyslexia specialist. And my passion was children,” she said. “It was just a coincidence, a conglomeration of events, lockdown, Black Lives Matter, my age, my menopause – and here I am today happy, celebrating and really looking forward to the future.”

‘They’ve done it, I can do it’

The 55-year-old, who lives in Chatham, wants to highlight Black and Brown people in her work, something she hopes will inspire others. She said: “I definitely want to promote and highlight them. I want to get people’s faces out there, so everyone can identify. Everyone can think ‘look at them, they’ve done it, I can do it’.

“I went down to the Medway Rugby Club, it was really interesting actually, because I really wanted to get some really stunning shots of the Black players. And one of the pictures is honestly incredible.”



'C'est Moi' is Julie's, known professionally as JulieAnn, first solo exhibition
‘C’est Moi’ is Julie’s, known professionally as JulieAnn, first solo exhibition

The mum-of-two said the biggest compliment for her is when her youngest son who is 24 tells her ‘well done mum’, or ‘that looks like an album cover’. But she did face some challenges when she started out in photography.

“I suppose one of the challenges was getting the best out of my equipment. I’ve learned and I’m learning all the time. One of the things I like to say is I love being self-taught because that makes me a little bit bold, a little bit fearless,” Julie said.

“I’ll just still try something, the resilience is developed because if it works it works. Actually what I love doing is stumbling across something that actually you didn’t intend.”

How photography helped with mental wellbeing

Another theme she likes to explore includes mental health as she suffered herself from anxiety. “I struggled with anxiety and different issues for many years and finally, I actually feel really well, down to a lot of things but photography is my real passion. It all happened so quickly,” she said.

Over the last few months, she went to monthly meetings where she met other local artists. She added: “The artists community in many ways is really strong, really supportive, it’s a great bunch of people. There are loads of ex-teachers and loads of experts and professionals that have just taken that leap of faith.”

‘C’est Moi’ is Julie’s first solo exhibition, but the photographer is also exhibiting some of her work at Medway Rugby Club. The exhibition at Naked Product Co. in Rochester was a last minute opportunity she decided to seize.



The gallery is inside Naked Product Co in Rochester
The gallery is inside Naked Product Co in Rochester

She said: “My exhibition happened because I took time to network with people and I went into the place where the gallery is and spoke to the owner and just by chance he happened to have a cancellation for June but I had less than two weeks to put an exhibition together.”

One of her featured pieces was auctioned at an event organised by BBC journalist John Brice. This was to raise money for Ukraine refugees and it took place at Rochester Cathedral with Clive Emson as the auctioneer.

READ NEXT:

Article Source: Kent Live